Egg on their faces: the GOP is stumbling towards a showdown over embryos.

Conservatives are wanting to have it both ways when it comes to ebryos.

On one hand, they are steadfastly against using embryos for stem cell research because it causes embryos to die. Not that conservatives really care about these surplus embryos, but they believe a victory here will help their anti-abortion agenda. If they can stop stem cell research based on killing embryos, they can also end abortion rights.

On the other hand, they wholeheartedly support in vitro fertilization even though it also causes embryos to die (those that don’t become babies, which is most of them). Conservative support of IVF is likely more about fighting bad press than anything else. It would be more convenient for their anti-abortion agenda to simply also be against IVF. But the Dem/libs would crucify them for being against creating “families.”

And the Republican party has taken on this agenda because it keeps the “religious” voters under their tent. Without them, the GOP is left with only their true constituents: the rich (who are too few to win a majority in any election). A good article on the building crisis can be found here.

What I find interesting is that for the GOP and conservatives to win, they must argue against the independence of the family and for Big Government control of family decisions. They must argue that the state has a “societal responsibility to protect life.”

That’s a pot hole the GOP would very much regret stepping into. It virtually cements the legitimacy of the government intervention on behalf of the citizenry. It legitimizes social programs, the New Deal and the Great Society, and changes Social Security from a subversive socialist scheme (as many hard-right pundits might say) to a legitimate state interest in promoting the general welfare of America.

If the Dems/libs are wise, and take a scorched Earth defensive approach, they can let the GOP/cons gain so much ground on this battle that by the time they realize the larger war is lost, they will have gone too far to turn back.