Bread-and-butter issues involve the economy, and wedge issues are those that attempt to attract voters across party lines on the basis of some sort of conflict of interest (e.g., racial or religious solidarity, fear of a common enemy). Red meat issues, on the other hand, are not geared toward attracting undecided voters or voters from the opposite party, nor do they tend to deal with economic concerns. Rather, red meat issues are those issues that most appeal to the base of one’s own political party, and they usually involve strongly held, core beliefs. Presidential candidates use red meat issues when they are attempting to rally their party’s base.
Red meat issues can be ideological. For example, Republicans generally argue that federal government has gotten too big and is trending toward socialism (a common theme over the past hundred years). Democrats, on the other hand, are apt to argue that government is doing too little to help average people, and that government officials are more concerned with the needs of corporate fat cats than they are with regular folks (also a common theme over the past hundred years). Republicans have historically valued candidates who talked tough about communism, wanted a strong national defense, professed strong support for gun rights, opposed government regulations, wanted to lower taxes, opposed affirmative action quotas, and criticized the modern welfare state. Democratic candidates have often focused on strategies for peaceful conflict resolution (including arms control agreements and withdrawing from military conflicts), improving the quality and cost of the education system, supporting civil rights and women’s rights, supporting the rights of labor in the marketplace, and providing assistance for the poor.
The Campaign of 1980 ushered in some new red meat issues—abortion and traditional values. While Republican nominee Ronald Reagan initially used the abortion issue as a wedge (to persuade Catholics, who had long voted Democratic, to cross party lines), party elites and rank-and-file voters have since sorted themselves on this issue, with most pro-life voters now preferring the Republican Party and most pro-choice voters now preferring the Democratic Party. What began as a wedge issue evolved into a red meat issue. Similarly, traditional values have come to be associated with conservative, evangelical Christian voters, who have since 1980 become an integral part of the Republican Party’s base of support.
More recent campaigns have produced some new red meat issues. The political parties are strongly divided on the topic of climate change, with the Republican Party challenging the science that purports that climate change is real, while the Democratic Party has embraced climate change as a global problem in need of an immediate solution. Similarly, Republicans want to combat high gas prices by increasing domestic oil production through more offshore drilling as well as drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, whereas Democrats believe that such areas are too environmentally sensitive and drilling is too risky. Democrats have agitated for a national health care system for the last several decades, while Republicans are strongly opposed to any attempt to alter the current private sector-based system, and thus they oppose the Affordable Care Act (although it is a private sector-based system in its current inception). The parties also differ on gay rights, with the Republican Party opposing same-sex marriage and gay adoption and (and with some members supporting a reinstatement of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding gays in the military that was first adopted under the Clinton administration). Democrats have generally supported same-sex marriage, gay adoption, and the abandonment of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” They are also more likely to support the expansion of civil rights legislation to LGBTQ groups, more generally.
Republican candidates pawed over the immigration red meat throughout the first few months of the 2015/2016 campaign. Following their failed efforts in the 2012 presidential campaign, some Republicans—most notably Sen. Marco Rubio—threw their support behind comprehensive immigration reform, but by 2016 nearly all GOP hopefuls had abandoned that approach. Donald Trump’s provocative comments on the issue of undocumented immigrants, along with controversial statements regarding Muslims, epitomized red meat tactics in an unprecedented manner. Candidates from both parties, for different reasons, are equally inclined to rake over the controversial gun control issue, more red meat to stoke campaign rhetoric.
Barrett, Grant, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Red State. See Blue and Red States
“Republican in Name Only.” See RINO