Alabama is a ruby red state in the Bible Belt with a reputation for temperance, dry counties and religious leaders worried over the effects of drunkenness.
But with little controversy, several bills loosening past restrictions on alcohol delivery advanced through the Alabama Legislature this spring.
What changed?
“I think it’s the culture,” said state Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, who sponsored a wine delivery bill that passed the Alabama House on Thursday. “I don’t think there is much of a fear in (direct shipments of alcohol).”
But even as worries over alcohol fade and a past “culture war” recedes, other battles are raging in Montgomery. Three major issues, all with culture war elements to them, are anticipated to go before the Legislature next week for a final verdict: The legalization of gambling, medical marijuana, and criminal penalties against those who provide medical care for transgender youths.
Alabama’s latest culture battles are not the typical Republican versus Democratic conflict. The battlefront this spring is also producing intraparty debate over values and beliefs. Some statewide conservative leaders are concerned that their fellow Republicans, who hold a supermajority voting status in the Legislature, are abandoning them in the culture war issues of gambling and marijuana legalization.
“The pro-life issue is the one thing we’ve gotten done under a supermajority Republican leadership,” said Joe Godfrey, executive director with the Alabama Citizens Action Program. That group lobbies for evangelical Christian interests in the Legislature and has long opposed loosening of alcohol-related laws and is opposed to the present gambling expansion plan.
“But everything else, the Republicans have been more like Democrats on the vices like alcohol and marijuana … more than I realized,” Godfrey added.
Critics of the culture wars have long derided the issues as superficial compared to educational spending, health care and budgets. The critics view those issues — abortion rights, LGBTQ matters, Confederate imagery, the so-called “War on Christmas,” gun control, among many other things – for doing more to exploit grievances, stir emotions and further the national political divide.
“This preoccupation from our Legislature with so-called culture issues is an unfortunate distraction from the real challenges that plague our state,” said JaTaune Bosby, executive director with the ACLU of Alabama. “We often see these kinds of bills pass as a reaction to national trends, whether that’s the anti-immigration bill of 2011, the abortion ban of 2019, or this year’s anti-trans bills, which only leads to costly litigation and loss of revenue for Alabama.”
‘Manufactured issue’
Alabama Speaker of the House Mac McCutcheon (John Sharp/jsharp@al.com).
Republican lawmakers say they continue to push culture war issues because they are responding to their constituents. That is the reason they cite for their support of a statewide gambling package that includes lottery and legalization of sports betting. A debate on the gaming package is set to begin on Tuesday.
The one issue that is creating the classic split in the culture wars, pitting Republicans against Democrats, is HB1 and SB10. Those two bills place restrictions on medical treatment for transgender youths under age 19.
Alabama House Speaker Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, summed it up this way, “I really think anytime you deal with an issue like pro-life or the transgender (questions) where faith is an issue on whatever the legislation may be, I think … members just have to vote their districts and their conscience, if you will, and see how many votes are left when the count is over.”
Alabama Republicans have already made the state a proving ground in the national culture war clash over transgender rights. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation last week restricting transgender youths from participating in K-12 sports, making the state one of the few to ban transgender girls from playing on a female sports team.
The decision came amid threats that Alabama could lose out on sporting events, such as the NCAA tournament games in 2023 and 2025. Ivey called the threats “speculation,” stating she was the governor for Alabama and not the NCAA.
The next showdown over transgender rights is expected to come this week over the “Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act,” which criminalizes medical care such as hormone therapy and prescribing puberty blockers for transgender youths.
If it does advance, and Ivey signs either HB1 or SB10 into law, Alabama will be the second state to approve the measure behind Arkansas. Ivey’s signature on such a law would make Alabama the first state to adopt the measure without significant opposition – in Arkansas, Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson vetoed similar legislation, which the Legislature overrode.
Fourteen other states are weighing similar bills affecting medical care for transgender youths. A Texas measure would classify transgender medical procedures as “child abuse.”
Kate Oakley, state legislative director and senior counsel with the HRC – an LGBTQ advocacy group — said the legislation surfacing in conservative states like Alabama “is a completely manufactured issue” that hardly resonated two years ago. Oakley called the push against transgender rights, brought forward by national conservative organizations, as an invention “to create a culture war where none exists.” She said those organizations have combined to generate a level of online “fear mongering that is just incredible.”
“The most important takeaway from SB10 is this is not only responding to a problem that does not exist, it actively harm trans youth in Alabama,” said Oakley. “This is not a little deal. It is a really big deal.”
Oakley said SB10 could lead to a corporate backlash that Alabama lawmakers aren’t considering. An Associated Press report last week indicated the five states – including Alabama – that have adopted laws restricting transgender sports participation have not faced notable backlash for their actions. It’s a stark difference from 2016, when North Carolina adopted restrictions limiting which public restrooms transgender people could use and resulted in powerful backlash: The NBA and NCAA relocated events, and companies like PayPal dropped building expansion plans.
Oakley said it’s a matter of time before Alabama faces repercussions if lawmakers adopt either HB1 or SB10.
“The idea that these are transgender people, and they don’t deserve health care, that’s discrimination no matter how you use it,” she said. “It’s not just about LGBTQ employees, but employees having LGBTQ family members. What this bill would say, if passed into law, is if you have a trans kid in your family, you are not going to be able to care for them in Alabama. How is a business supposed to feel about that? Will they say, ‘sure, we’ll ask employees to come live in a state where their families don’t feel safe.’ It’s just a matter of time.”
Some Republican state lawmakers believe it’s a state’s business climate, not the culture war issues, that matter the most for industries looking to locate within Alabama.
State Sen. Clay Schofield, R-Guntersville, pointed to recent Census data that shows more left-leaning states like California, New York and Illinois losing congressional representation.
“Our incentives that we offer are very, very good,” said Schofield. “They are very successful in recruiting business to our state. We are investing in infrastructure, whether that be highways or broadband. We are focusing on workforce development. Those three things, I think, are key to economic recruitment.”
‘Bible in their hands’
Democratic lawmakers believe any struggles Republicans are having over support for culture war issues are part of their own doing.
“So many of the things they have done is about party politics and the saddest thing is it’s not about the issues that are happening here,” said state Rep. Mary Moore, D-Birmingham. “A lot of the things they are doing is not for the people they are representing, but it’s for the party of which they are a member of.”
Moore said any idea originated by state or national Democrats stands little chance of advancing in Montgomery. She said that is the reason why Alabama lawmakers have long opposed expanding Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act of 2010 – otherwise known as Obamacare – despite the urging from the medical and business communities about the economic and health benefits in doing so.
“You look at gaming, when the Democratic Party offered it up, the Republicans had a Bible in their hands,” Moore said, referring to the failed attempt in the late 1990s by then-Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman to push through a statewide lottery. “But now they think it’s a fantastic idea and they put the Bible on the shelf. They are peculiar group of people. If they have the opportunity to take an idea someone else has worked on, they put their name on it and sell it like they’ve worked all day and night on it. That transgender bill has been presented in several different states, yet they will come back … and say, ‘I thought of this because of (remarks) in my district.’ That’s one of their national bills they are pushing.”
Moore said the anti-rioting legislation, which doesn’t appear to be advancing this session, is also based on national Republican interests. A similar measure strengthening penalties against rioters won approval in Florida and was signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“The rioting bill is another one they are pushing across the country,” she said. “How can you stand in front of everyone and say, ‘I am doing this because of what happened in Birmingham?’”
‘Emotional issues’
The latest culture war push from Republicans in Alabama and nationwide comes at a time when Democratic President Joe Biden and his economic policies are polling strong. That include the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief act adopted in March, a $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan, and a $1.8 trillion plan for child care and universal pre-K.
Brent Buchanan, a Montgomery-based GOP pollster, said he believes Biden’s agenda is popular now because “no one knows the specifics.” He predicts suburban Republicans, who didn’t support former President Donald Trump, will come back into the Republican fold because of the “massive ‘soak the rich’ payment method of Biden’s” policies.
Biden is also milquetoast, Buchanan said, making it difficult for opponents to define.
“That, in turn, makes it challenge for Republicans to have cohesive counter proposals,” he said. Buchanan believes the popularity with the new administration will eventually erode over what he feels is a shift toward “socialism and collectivism.”
Buchanan said there are little risks for Republicans to emphasize the culture war fights right now as Biden focuses on economic matters.
“Culture and social issues are emotional issues, compared to economic issues which are logical,” said Buchanan. “Emotional always trump logic in debates and voting.”
Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl talks with other Republicans after being the party’s winter meeting on Saturday in Montgomery. Wahl was elected chairman, replacing Terry Lathan, who stepped down after six years.
Economic issues aside, Alabama Republicans view the culture war issues like transgender rights as “important to the majority of Alabamians,” according to Alabama GOP chairman John Wahl.
“Our citizens want to defend women’s sorts,” he said. “This is a very conservative state, and it is the responsibility of the Republican Party to defend their values.”
He added, “Fighting for family values in the middle of a culture war will never be popular with the leftist mainstream media or Big Tech. However, we will always stand with middle class, hardworking Americans, and the principles they believe in.”
Polling on the issue is rather sparse and is non-existent in Alabama. A recent PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll found that more than two-thirds of Americans are against laws restricting transgender rights. That same poll showed that among Republicans, only 26% support the bills that prohibit medical care for transgender youths. The poll does not indicate whether Republicans in Alabama were screened.
“Protecting women’s sports is a popular issue among Republican primary voters, which is the most important electorate in the state of Alabama.” Buchanan said.
Peter Loge, an associate professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., said individual legislators mostly pay attention to their own elections and, due to gerrymandering and other factors, “mostly means taking care of the more liberal or conservative voters you need.”
“Legislators need to raise money, get people to volunteer their time, and vote,” said Loge. “Fear is a good way to motivate people. So, candidates say, ‘those people are not like us, they are threat to us, we need to stop them at all costs.’ The problem for a democracy is that ‘those people’ are our neighbors. We are those people.”
David Hughes, assistant professor of political sciences at Auburn University at Montgomery, said the morality issues like alcohol and same-sex marriage do not resonate in Alabama like they once did mainly because “for many younger residents, these are simply non-issues.” High-profile court victories in favor of same-sex marriage also helped increase the visibility of gay people throughout the country including in Alabama, Hughes said.
Transgender people, he said, are less visible today and “their rights have become the later iteration of the culture wars.”
“I suspect that as Alabamians become more familiar with the transgender community – just as they did with the gay community – these types of bills will similarly lose their potency,” Hughes said. “Until then, we can expect more of the same.”
‘Focus on gambling’
Godfrey, with ALCAP, is supportive of the Republicans efforts to restrict transgender youths from accessing medical care. But he’s fearful that conservative lawmakers are abandoning their culture war roots when it comes to opposition to gambling.
He is also worried they will be distracted with the gambling and lottery legislation next week that they will forgo a vote on either HB1 or SB10. As of Friday, there was no scheduled date for either bill to come before the full House for a vote, and it was not on Tuesday’s calendar. The Alabama Senate has already approved SB10.
“I am afraid they will put all their focus on gambling,” said Godfrey. “I’m afraid (HB1 or SB10) will get pushed aside.”
Alabama lawmakers will consider a gaming package that includes a statewide lottery this week.
The concerns over a gambling package in Alabama are so much that conservative lawmakers like state Rep. Rich Wingo, R-Tuscaloosa, and Rep. Reed Ingram, R-Montgomery, approached reporters on Thursday to express dismay over a lack of time they have been given to review what is inside the legislation. As proposed, four casinos would be located at greyhound tracks in Birmingham, Mobile, Greene County and Macon County. Another casino would be at a bingo facility in Dothan. The sixth would be in located in Northeast Alabama.
Wingo said he’s concerned that gambling expansion will be given its most aggressive airing in Montgomery since long before Republicans gained a supermajority status in the Legislature.
“A Republican supermajority that is bringing medical marijuana, is bringing full blown Class 3 gaming,” said Wingo. “If this were a Democratic supermajority, I could understand that. But we are Republicans, conservatives with moral values. We preach the Gospel and pray to God every day here. Do we glorify him with this? No. We don’t glorify God one bit.”
Godfrey said his concerns about the Republicans also extends to legislation legalizing medical marijuana. Thirty-six states, including conservative states like Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, have legalized marijuana for medical purposes.
“We were OK with Carley’s Law (that allows for) research for children with seizures,” said Godfrey, referring to the 2014 law that permitted the University of Alabama at Birmingham to use CBD oil as a treatment for debilitating epileptic conditions.
Godfrey added, “They said ‘that’s all we want.’ We said we’d be OK with that. But I was warned, and I ignored it, that this was the camel’s nose in the tent. Sure enough, the come back every year to (attempt) to expand marijuana legalization. This bill … it’s not recreational, but that’s the next step and it’s where we are headed. It used to be we could count on Republicans not to push things like that.”
