Bob Neal

The news on Monday from the Marist College poll was terrible for Republican leaders.

They have painted themselves into a corner, especially in the U.S. House of Representatives. They are so split internally — more on that in a minute — that maybe only Democrats can save them. One of those Democrats is Rep. Jared Golden of Maine’s 2nd District.

Republicans have lost the culture war while winning the battle over abortion availability nationwide. They have put the lie to the idea that they are the party of liberty by banning books, by dictating what can be taught in schools and by a backdoor ploy to ban medication abortions.

They have achieved a half-century goal of stacking the Supreme Court, just as the court sinks in public esteem. And the bedrock conservative (as opposed to hard-right) party stance against spending no longer resonates loudly.

Back to the Marist poll. Here’s what it showed. Support for medication abortions is 64% nationally and 55% among Republicans. Approval of the Supreme Court is 37%, disapproval 62%. That’s the lowest approval in five years. And 68% said justices’ terms should be limited.

Cut to the U.S. House of Representatives, where Republicans hold an edge of 222-213. The Washington Post last week analyzed the five House Republican “families.” After reading that analysis, I concluded the party can’t unify for anything more important than naming an airport.

But hope springs eternal. As is the nature of the news business, outsized attention has gone to the most extreme elements in the House, so we read more about the so-called “Freedom Caucus” of hard-right Republicans and about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other hard-left Democrats.

But that’s only, maybe, 30% of the total House. Call me an optimist, but I believe those who really want to pass meaningful legislation can find the votes among the remaining 70%.

Two Republican families are the “Republican Governance Group” of 42 socially moderate and fiscally conservative members — that’s how I described myself when I was enrolled Republican — and the “Problem Solvers” of 29 Republicans and 29 Democrats. Problem Solvers are the only family that includes Democrats. That’s where Golden fits in. He’s one of the Problem Solvers.

First to abortion. Ann Coulter, a darling of the hard-right, told Republicans just after the state Supreme Court election in Wisconsin, “Please stop pushing strict limits on abortion, or there will be no Republicans left.” The election probably turned on the abortion issue.

Liberal New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg wrote “The reason voters think Republicans support full abortion bans … is that many of them do.” The Wall Street Journal, “think tank” of the right, added: “Republicans had better get their abortion position straight, and more in line with where voters are, or they will face another disappointment in 2024.”

The House Republicans’ response? They have introduced at least 20 bills to further restrict access to abortion. Maybe they don’t listen to Ann Coulter. Or read the Wall Street Journal.

As to the Supreme Court, it hasn’t been so clearly identified with one party since at least the ‘80s. Republicans under Donald Trump quickly installed three justices, giving the four conservatives and two hard-rightists a three-vote majority.

Then, the term “Supreme Court ethics” became an oxymoron when ProPublica revealed that Justice Clarence Thomas (see the Countryman for April 15, “Ethics in High Places“) has accepted and not reported hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of trips and other goodies from a rich Republican donor.

Did the leaders wish too hard for a packed court?

Turns out, the nine in robes have no code of ethics, though they are subject to reporting laws for federal employees. And when Chuck Schumer, D-New York, the Senate Judiciary Committee chair, asked Chief Justice John Roberts to testify on court ethics, the chief said no. Less than a week after the Marist poll showed disapproval of the court at 62%. Can you say tone deaf?

So, if the Republicans have lost the culture war, if their prized Supreme Court is below water in the public eye and if their dislike of government spending has gone bye-bye, where do they turn?

Here’s where the ideas of representatives like Golden come in. Republicans could try to fashion a coherent position on abortion — Paul LePage’s incoherence on abortion did more to thwart his third-term bid than any other issue, except his personality — one that would universalize access to abortion but recognize the government’s protective interest in the safety of a late-term fetus.

They could join in drawing up an ethics code for justices, and maybe even create term limits on the court. They could become watchdogs over spending, not so much to prevent it as to ensure it is done carefully and wisely. After all, they always say they are out to get “fraud and corruption.”

Ah, but that may be too much work. It’s easier to write bills that can’t pass but do create reelection talking points.

Maybe even Jared Golden and the Problem Solvers can’t save them.

Bob Neal feels our system needs two functioning parties. He feels it so strongly that he has been enrolled first as independent, then Republican and then Democrat over the past 25 years or so. Neal can be reached at bobneal@myfairpoint.net.