Top 10 Politics Stories of 2014
5. Populism on the Rise in Both Parties
A group of conservative thinkers continued to implore Republicans to fight against the cronyism that privileges the rich and to become champions of the poor. A two-part CP analysis last year (here and here) referred to them as the "new populists." The populist message appeared to be gaining ground in 2014 with Republicans making an effort to end the corporate-welfare fueled Export-Import Bank, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's loss to David Brat in his primary election. At the same time, there appears to be a greater interest in a populist message among liberals, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., becoming their standard bearer. Warren gave a fiery speech on the Senate floor this month, decrying the cronyism in the budget bill negotiated by party leaders. Opponents of that bill tended to be populists in both parties.
4. Republicans Win Big in the Midterms
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Republicans won big in the 2014 midterm elections, winning more seats in the U.S. House, gaining control of the U.S. Senate, and winning control of 68 of 98 partisan state houses, the highest in the history of the Republican Party.
3. Racial Tension in America
Reactions to the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in Long Island, New York, and to the grand jury decisions not to bring the officers responsible for those deaths to trial, highlighted the racial tension that continues to plague the United States. The decisions were followed by both peaceful demonstrations and riots, and a national discussion about policing and racism.
2. State Marriage Laws Struck Down, Supreme Court Declines to Review
A number of federal judges declared state marriage laws and constitutional amendments a violation of the U.S. Constitution in 2014, bringing the total number of states where marriage has been redefined to include same-sex couples to 35, with cases pending in another 10 states.
Parties from both sides of the debate asked, and expected, the U.S. Supreme Court take up the issue of whether 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (passed after the Civil War to provide equal protection of the laws to former slaves) requires states to redefine marriage.
To the astonishment of court watchers, the Court declined to review that question in October, which left in place lower court decisions striking down marriage laws.
1. Religious Freedom Versus Sexual Immorality
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act was passed unanimously in the House, 97-3 in the Senate and signed by President Bill Clinton in 1993. At a Nov. 2013 event marking the 20 year anniversary of RFRA, some of the speakers predicted the debate that would become CP's number one politics story for 2014.
"The biggest problem for religious liberty in our time is deep disagreement over sexual immorality," said Doug Laycock, professor of law and religious studies at the University of Virginia School of Law. "Abortion, contraception, emergency contraception, sterilization ... gay rights and same-sex marriage, are dividing the country and poisoning the debate over religious liberty."
After the New Mexico Supreme Court declared that a wedding photographer could be punished for refusing to photograph a same-sex wedding, legislators in Arizona and other states sought to strengthen or add a state-level RFRA to clarify the intent of the law. The Arizona bill, in particular, became a national debate. Opponents and most of the media falsely claimed that the bill would allow businesses to deny public accomodations to gays.
There was also a debate over whether family-owned businesses and religious organizations can be required to pay for birth control or drugs that could cause an abortion if those products are in opposition to their religious views. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Obamacare's birth control mandate and in favor of Hobby Lobby. RFRA, the Court said, requires the government to provide an exemption to the mandate for closely-held corporations with a religious objection.
Some gays right's groups saw the Hobby Lobby decision as a threat. They withdrew support for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which passed last year in the U.S. Senate. The groups had supported ENDA, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of categories that businesses would not be able to discriminate against, but they dropped their support for the bill because it contained a religious exemption and the Court's support for religious freedom was viewed as problematic.
President Barack Obama would later issue an ENDA-like executive order for government contractors that dis not include a religious exemption, though a religious hiring exception was left in place.
