It’s Bad for Party Business : Newport Beach conservative Republican sounds alarm loudly about GOP’s direction

The loss of the presidency, as well as other defeats in the November election, is continuing to reverberate in the Republican Party in California, as it should.

Even one of the GOP’s most conservative spokesmen, Assemblyman Gil Ferguson of Newport Beach, now is saying that the party needs to strengthen itself by broadening its horizons. He’s right.

He recommended that the GOP start by removing the anti-abortion plank inserted in the party platform at the national convention in Houston last summer. He also says that the party should ease its anti-gay rights position and reach out more to ethnic voters. Those are suggestions the party would be wise to follow.

The advice is surprising coming from Ferguson, especially his recommendation on the issue of abortion. His stand against abortion rights was one of the positions that put him among the state GOP’s so-called “cavemen.”

Ferguson isn’t saying he has changed his views but simply that the issue is bad for party business. He takes the practical view that if the current U.S. Supreme Court--as conservative as it is--is unwilling to overturn Roe vs. Wade, then it is unlikely that a future court will do so. In other words, he says, the battle against abortion already has been fought and now only serves to weaken the party. It is so divisive it is turning away people who would otherwise identify with the GOP.

Ferguson is right that the GOP would be stronger if it returned its focus to more traditional issues, such as pro-business approaches to the economy. Views on these bedrock issues can be shared by Republicans of diverse religious beliefs, ethnic backgrounds and lifestyles, without risking attack from the party’s right wing--such as the denunciations that have driven many abortion rights supporters and others from the GOP’s Big Tent.

Ferguson’s attempt to push Republicans away from hot-button social issues should be a wake-up call to the GOP. It’s almost the new year--a time for fresh beginnings.