What are 'social issues' anyway?

Once again, the debate about the importance, relevance and propriety of "social issues" in the political debate is raging.

Some say the Republican Party should drop its focus on "social issues," while others argue they are the key to victory.

Who is right?

Maybe a better question to begin with is this: What do we mean by "social issues"?

That may seem obvious to most people. What is generally meant by "social issues" are those that deal with personal behavior, i.e. abortion and same-sex marriage. They are also sometimes referred to as "moral" issues.

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Either way, the definitions of "social issues" are problematic.

Why?

Because all political issues are both "social" and "moral."

"Social" is actually a synonym of "people."

By that dictionary definition, all political issues are ultimately about people.

But here's a shocker for many people: All political issues are ultimately moral issues, too.

Most often, "social issues" are somehow set apart from "economic issues," as if economic issues have little or nothing to do with people or morality. But economic issues affect people, and our economic ideas are based on our ideas about morality.

For instance, everyone wants to see more people prosper economically. We just have different ideas about how to achieve that goal. Some people believe the only way to achieve that goal is to spread around what they see as a limited amount of wealth, bringing down the rich and elevating the poor. Others recognize that simplistic formula doesn't work. It never has and it never will.

But, notice how the Democratic Party keeps pushing that formula. Its proponents even bill their plan as the only moral path to follow. Thus, the Democratic Party has no internecine war over social, economic or moral issues. They know what they believe, and they promote their ideas confidently and boldly.

It's only the Republican Party that self-consciously struggles with this conundrum.

Let me repeat the most important truth you will find in this column: All political issues are moral issues. How you approach them should be considered on the basis of what's right and what's wrong – and that ultimately is the problem Americans are having with this debate.

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Too many conservatives and libertarians are confused about right and wrong. They have lost their moral bearings. They think right and wrong are merely personal preferences. Liberals and left-wingers don't believe that. They want to decide what's right and wrong for everyone – down to the kind of light bulb you should be able to purchase or the size of your cup of Coke.

Naturally, they also have strong ideas about economics and issues like abortion and same-sex marriage.

And they will use any means necessary to push their agenda – elections, the legislative process, their media power, their influence in the elite cultural institutions like Hollywood and the major foundations and, of course, the judicial branch of government.

Republicans, conservatives and libertarians aren't inclined to fight like that. For one thing, they more generally believe in the foundational and constitutional principle of self-government. Self-government (that's when individuals govern their own behavior) and constitutionally limited government are only possible, the founders recognized, with a citizenry that is both informed and moral. That's the real reason Republicans, conservatives and libertarians are finding it more and more difficult to win elections – even when Democrats run candidates who take extreme positions that deviate profoundly from American tradition and the Judeo-Christian morality that shaped the first and only system of constitutionally limited government in the world – and the freest.

About the only way Republicans, conservatives and libertarians can win is when Democrats govern so poorly Americans turn to the only political alternative available to them. (Watch how this happens this November.)

The fact that a debate is even taking place about the proper role of "social issues" or "moral issues" in politics illustrates how dumbed down Americans really are.

I repeat: All political issues are social issues. All political issues are moral issues.

Economic policy is a moral and social issue. Tax policy is a social and moral issue. Whether incandescent light bulbs are dangerous is a social and moral issue. Whether Big Gulps should be banned is a social and moral issue. When life begins is a social and moral issue. Whether God created men and women to marry is a social and moral issue.

A phony divide has been created by liberals and leftists, and conservatives and libertarians have fallen right into their semantic trap.

The big issues of the day need to be debated all the time in our society – and twice as much in election years. The problem is that liberals and leftists are setting the parameters and the terms of the debate – and conservatives and libertarians are allowing them to do it.

Do you want to know why Republicans lost the last two presidential elections handily? Because tens of millions of Americans saw no candidate representing their most precious and strongly held values. So they stayed home.

The more Republicans and conservatives retreat from life-and-death issues and the definition of marriage, the more they will be relegated to also-rans who only win when Democrats and liberals over-reach in their enthusiasm to move America from its moral foundations.

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