Another Day, Another NY Times A1 Story Saying GOP Is Doomed; This Time Over Indiana

By Clay Waters | April 2, 2015 | 10:28 PM EDT

If it's Thursday, it must be...yet another front-page New York Times story on the issue that is going to tear the Republican Party apart and doom prospects in 2016 (the actual issue changes every week, of course).

On cue with the ginned-up controversy over Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act came reporter Jennifer Steinhauer's story, under a liberally stacked deck of headlines: "Rights Measures Expose Divisions In G.O.P.'s Ranks – Debate Enters '16 Race – Laws Seen as Targeting Gays, and Posing a Peril to Business." Steinhauer wasted no time:

In Indiana, the Republican mayor of Indianapolis argued against the law the Republican governor had signed. In Ohio, a group called the Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry tried to remove antigay language from the party platform. In Arkansas, the Republican governor faced a backlash from business and asked the Republican-led legislature to recall a bill seen as discriminatory to same-sex couples.

The Republican Party is in the middle of an argument with itself.

The favorite place for the Republican Party to be, at the Times.

State laws seen as discriminatory against gay couples have laid bare and intensified longtime divisions in the party between social conservatives opposed to gay rights and the pro-business wing of the party that sees economic peril in the fight.

“This is a pro-business party with a gay exception, and that exception comes into play over and over again,” said Charles Francis, who was a founder of the Republican Unity Coalition during the George W. Bush administration, which failed in its effort to eliminate sexual orientation issues from the party’s agenda.

The divisions were on particular display Wednesday in Little Rock, Ark., where Asa Hutchinson, the Republican governor, called on state lawmakers to either recall or amend legislation billed as a religious freedom measure so that it mirrored a federal law approved in 1993.

....

The tug of war between social and business-minded conservatives has been long simmering, and surfaced even when President Bush sought to privatize Social Security and some social conservatives feared the move would drive women into the work force.

The issue of abortion has provided another flash point. While there is more unity among Republicans in opposing abortion rights, many would prefer to instead steer the conversation toward the economy, health care and national security.

The Times' knowledge of the right-of-center political universe once again proves itself less than voluminous.

“There has always been this tension,” said Michael D. Tanner, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank, “both in terms of tactics, because the economic conservatives wanted to talk about taxes and the economy, and on the electoral strategy,” because those social issues often alienated suburban moderates and cost Republicans elections, he said.

Cato is a libertarian think tank.

Steinhauer concluded with dire warnings for the GOP to adopt or die:

Mr. Francis, a management consultant, dropped his Republican affiliation after the battles in 2006 over the marriage issue and married a man. “We gave it our best effort and failed,” he said of his earlier efforts. “I think the jury is still out on whether the Republican Party will be able to resolve this chasm before the coming generation of millennials are completely gone.”

And on the front page of the Business section, Hiroko Tabuchi cowrote with long-time Wal-Mart opponent Michael Barbaro some backhanded praise for big business meddling in politics, at long as it comes down on the correct side: "Walmart Emerges As Unlikely Social Force."

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