Another Republican heavyweight has fingered religious conservatives (or the oogedy-boogedies, as one conservative called them) as the culprits in the GOP loss. Jeffrey Hart (former aide to Nixon and Reagan and longtime contributor to National Review) writes:
George W. Bush transformed the center-right party of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and his father, George H.W. Bush, into the political instrument of the religious right... In 2000 Bush-Cheney got 75 percent of the white evangelical vote.This has had significant political consequences: federal funding for all embryonic stem cell work was blocked; federally funded faith-based initiatives (abstinence only) were begun; and the theory of evolution became politically controversial for the first time since the 1920s.
In a speech in Irvine, California on April 24, 2006, Bush even gave a religious reason for the Iraq war.
'I based a lot of my foreign policy on some things I think are true. One, I believe there is an Almighty, and secondly, I believe one of the great gifts of the Almighty is the desire in everybody's soul, regardless what you look like or where you live, to be free. And I believe liberty is universal. I believe people want to be free. And I know that the best to defeat the enemy, the best way to defeat their hopelessness and despair, is the ability to give people the chance to love their life in a free society."
In that glimpse into his muddled thinking, almost everything Bush said was shown to be false.
McCain lost because the economy is collapsing on the watch of an unpopular Republican president, and he had no idea what to say about it. McCain lost because his party is incompetent. McCain lost because his choice of Sarah the Unready cast doubt about his judgment. And McCain lost because Barack Obama ran a great campaign.Where is Jesus in any of that?
I agree with Crunchy that. religious conservatives are being scapegoated.
However, I do believe that on balance religious conservatives hurt the ticket for three reasons:
1) Their influence led to the selection of Sarah Palin as VP. She cost them more than she gained them.
2) Religious conservatives (or fear of them by McCain aides) prompted McCain to avoid several candidates who might have helped with big states or with the economic message (Michael Bloomberg, Tom Ridge, Mitt Romney, Charlie Crist). Try to imagine how different the conversation about McCain and the economy would have been had Bloomberg been the VP candidate.
3) Immigration. My reasoning is a bit circuitous but the gist is: if McCain had kept to his original moderate view on immigration he could have won Latinos and proven his maverick bona fides. He didn't, because he probably couldn't have gotten the Republican nomination. One reason is that religious conservatives who dominate the primaries are particularly anti-immigration. (More details on religious conservatives and immigration here).
To win, Republicans can't expel Religious conservatives -- and religious conservatives should not trim their sails in what the push for -- but Republicans need to know when to say no to them, like any other constituency.
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
Every time a Republican politician waffles on evolution and talks about "teaching both sides" they push educated urban professionals into the hands of the Democrats. The Republicans do this because they're taking care of the religious right which is hostile to the theory of evolution.
Also promoting abstinence-only sex ed while your own teenage daughter is pregnant has a similar dynamic.
It gives the feel of a party mired in ideology and unwilling to face reality.
I am not sure what Crunchy Con means by "Where is Jesus in any of that?"
Obama was always ahead of McCain, except for the first few weeks after Palin was selected.
Maybe God was in all of that. It was amazing that Obama survived the non-stop smears of the misunderstood Rev Wright, Bill Ayres, accusations of being a Muslim, etc, etc. He won against the powerful Clintons. The Republican smear and fear tactics used during Bush's campaign did not work with Obama. In fact, during the last couple of month, McCain's negative campaigning pushed people toward Obama.
Rick Warren's book "The Purpose Driven Life" says God has a plan for our life from the moment we are born.
None of us knows when certain things happened because of God's will. I am a logical educated person that rarely lets her emotions rule. The first time I ever saw Obama was during his acceptance speech after winning the Iowa primary. I had my first positive emotional reaction to a politician.
I researched everything about Obama and read his books. I had a strong feeling that God planned Obama's life to President. Obama had many varied life experiences that very few people ever experience. Obama's father leaving when he was two was probably a blessing. Most of Obama's half-siblings were emotionally scared by their angry and abusive father. Obama's father had also had an angry and abusive father. Obama's mother and grandparents were there during the first two years to protect him from his father.
Obama lived between two or more worlds and never fit into either world until he moved to Chicago. Obama was always the different from the others. He was the only English-speaking person in his classes in Indonesia. He was exposed to many different cultures with a mother that helped him learn to accept people that were different. One of his grade school teachers in Indonesia told a story about Obama making classmates that were fighting shake hands and play together. Obama say terrible poverty in Indonesia.
Maybe God know the Republicans have had many opportunities to make abortion illegal. Both Reagan and Bush flip-flopped and promised a Constitutional Amendment, but neither did anything after elected.
That's Funny repeated another false smear against Obama, "man who is committed to killing babies (even those born alive!" Despite all the smears, Obama won.
Maybe God was teaching another lesson, such as Palin's claim of the importance of her religion, while she told lie after lie about Obama. Palin's actions are what turn many people away from religion. Palin and McCain incited fear and potential violence against Obama during there campaign stops. The number of reports to the Secret Service went up substantially.
I pray that God will help Obama be the President we need. I also pray that God will keep him save for his little girls and wife.
If you noticed the Pew polls, the more regularly church attending people were less nativist in their attitudes. And the Religious Right leadership has never wanted to confuse its issues with the immigration issues. If anything, they have hoped that immigrants would be more favorable to their favorite issues. With regard to Prop 8, they were right - the Latinos skewed several more points for prop 8 than the Anglos, though the Asians were a disappointment, Prop 8 losing among them by the same 2 points as it had among the Anglos. The demand for "abortion rights" and "marriage equality" has not been led by immigrants - if anything, immigrants are the part of society least likely to be open to such ideas, with the exception of blacks.
Howard, which pew polls showed the regular church attenders less nativist? The ones I was looking at seemed to show the evangleicals more nativist. Perhaps it was the non-evangelical churchgoers who were less nativist.
That's Funny, I agree with your assessment. McCain should have taken the chance that the conservative animosity toward Obama would have been sufficient to energize the base. That way he could have done what he had to do to convince people he was the man to fix the economy -- including picking a moderate running mate if that's what it would have taken.
Steve
I have struggled with the definition of evangelical. After reading several articles, I find the definition to very confusing and inconsistent. I have asked a few people whether they belonged to a mainline church or an evangelical church. They were not familiar with the terms. Some churches that are considered mainline say they are an evangelical church.
How many people confuse the word evangelism with evangelical?
I wonder how many people understand the questions during surveys that determine if someone is an Evangelical. The questions from Pew data link, More Americans Question Religion’s Role in Politics Aug. 21, 2008:
http://pewforum.org/newassets/images/reports/summer08/topline.pdf
"ASK ALL:
RELIG What is your present religion, if any? Are you Protestant, Roman Catholic, Mormon, Orthodox such as Greek or Russian Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, agnostic, something else, or nothing in particular?
INTERVIEWER: IF R VOLUNTEERS “nothing in particular, none, no religion, etc.” BEFORE REACHING END OF LIST, PROMPT WITH: and would you say that’s atheist, agnostic, or just nothing in particular?]
43 Protestant (Baptist, Methodist, Non-denominational, Lutheran, Presbyterian,
Pentecostal, Episcopalian, Reformed, Church of Christ, Jehovah’s Witness, etc.)
25 Roman Catholic (Catholic)
2 Mormon (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints/LDS)
* Orthodox (Greek, Russian, or some other orthodox church)
2 Jewish (Judaism)
1 Muslim (Islam)
* Buddhist
* Hindu
2 Atheist (do not believe in God)
2 Agnostic (not sure if there is a God)
1 Something else (SPECIFY)
10 Nothing in particular
9 Christian (VOL.)
* Unitarian (Universalist) (VOL.)
3 Don't Know/Refused (VOL.)
100
IF CHRISTIAN (RELIG=1-4, 13 OR CHR=1), ASK [N=2382]:
BORN Would you describe yourself as a “born-again” or evangelical Christian, or not?
BASED ON TOTAL
36 Yes
42 No
3 Don’t know/refused (VOL.)
* Undesignated
81% Christian (Respondents coded as “Something else” or “Don’t Know/Refused” in the religious affiliation question (RELIG) are asked if they think of themselves as Christian or not. An additional 2% of the public stated that they do think of themselves as Christian.)"
The same was not very big.
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.