By the mid-1990s, political labels were high fashion in Kansas politics. One-by-one, young conservatives were replacing incumbents of the Republican old guard. New coalitions began to out-muscle the strictures of party discipline.
The young rebels ‒ they were actually called “rebels”‒ grew in number and voice. They were fresh, ardent supply-side, fiscal conservatives determined to cut taxes and reshape state spending. Many of them were devout anti-abortionists. Nearly all were painted as “social conservatives,” a term embraced by the press.
Republicans who opposed abortion and favored state vouchers for private schools became the “religious right.” One of them, Rep. Kerry Patrick, a sharp and energetic idealist from Overland Park, sponsored a bill demanding sterilization implants for welfare mothers; his plan landed him a full segment on the CBS documentary program, “60 Minutes.”
The outsiders, a few Republicans and most Democrats, were called “moderates”. The term “liberal” had fallen far out of favor, but the whispering never stopped: Most Democrats were liberals, a term that bordered on profanity.
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In the final rush of the 1996 legislative session, the House of Representatives passed a measure than banned same-sex marriages in Kansas. The Senate quickly agreed and Gov. Bill Graves signed the bill into law.
Moderates, civil libertarians and old-line conservatives were stunned. In moments, word went out that the radical Republican religious right had forced righteous dogma into state law.
In fact, it was Democrat ‒ Rep. Jan Pauls, of Hutchinson ‒ who had co-authored the measure and carried it on the House floor.
State Sen. Mike Harris, Wichita, was the Republicans’ conservative leader in the legislature. He said the stimulus for the same-sex marriage ban and some of the state’s most stringent anti-abortion proposals came from Democrats, not Republicans.
“Democrats, seen as moderates and liberals in nearly everything else, come on strongly for pro-life legislation. There are several of us, at least,” Pauls said at that time.
It was never clear how many Democrats were “social conservatives.” But the religious left, compared with the religious right, was more liberal in issues of taxing, spending, welfare, education and the environment. Many, but not all of those Democrats were Catholic. (Pauls was a protestant.)
Bruce Larkin of Baileyville and Bill Reardon, Kansas City, both Catholics, were among prominent Democrats who were pro-life, but disagreed on the death penalty.
Reardon said there was much more to being pro-life than being anti-abortion.
Said Larkin: “My religious upbringing taught me understanding and compassion for the less fortunate. I cannot turn my back on these people. I respect life in all stages. The fact that I’m pro-life and anti-capital punishment shows, I think, consistency in that belief.”
Pauls said she favored many Democratic causes ‒ “the legal rights of the impoverished, the plight of the laborer, the rights of tenants. Democrats protect the downtrodden, the working family, the blue collar. I’m comfortable with that.”
“It’s like the bumper sticker says.” Larkin said, “‘Democrats are Christians, too’.”
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Harris, the conservative leader , said the religious left was barely visible in the Democratic party.
“They don’t neatly fit in. Democrats have labor unions, feminists, gays and lesbians, a huge gathering of special interest groups. The social conservatives, then, are the Kennedy Democrats left over. They hang in there, rather than have grandmother roll over in her grave if they switched parties.”
At the time, Harris noted connective links with Democrats, “a similarity in social class.”
He mentioned education reform. “We agree that the problem is bringing the poor, and poor children, out of their poverty through education. We don’t agree that vouchers ‒ school choice ‒ may be the answer. But we do see education as the way to break the cycle of poverty.”
“The successful legislators,” said Pauls, get past the labels ‒ “right, left, religious or whatever, and look for alliances on individual issues, We’re not forced into a mold of what a Democrat is supposed to be.”
Then Harris took aim at his own party: “The problem with country club Republicans is that the only care about capital gains, tax cuts and money. It’s as though many social problems don’t exist. The rich already have school choice, We don’t,” he said.
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