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Title: Religious right falters on eve of elections
Source:
Facing South
URL Source: http://southernstudies.org/facingso ... us-right-falters-on-eve-of.asp
Published: Sep 27, 2006
Author: Facing South
Post Date: 2006-09-27 18:58:32 by Morgana le Fay
Keywords: None
Views: 348
Comments: 18
For over two decades, the religious right -- the "hard base" of the Republican Party -- has grown to be a driving force for GOP political success. The "values voters" base will be especially important to Republicans this November. Lower mid-term turnout and general public dissatisfaction with the country's political direction make a solid showing among the conservative faithful critical to GOP success. Double that in the South. That's why Republican strategists are terrified by the news they're reading in dispatches such as this one from the AP earlier this week, which reveals a growing sense of frustration and betrayal from the church pews to the religious right leadership: "Conservative Christians are somewhat disenchanted with Republicans," said Kenyn Cureton, vice president for convention relations with the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination with nearly 16 million members. Religious conservatives are unhappy the Republican-led Congress hasn't paid enough attention to "values issues," he said, noting that even a push this summer against same-sex marriage came too late. "It has not escaped our notice that they waited until just a few months from the November elections to address our agenda," Cureton said. Polls show Cureton of the SBC isn't alone, and that Bush's job performance is a lightning rod: Exit polls showed 78 percent of white evangelicals voted for him in 2004. But an Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted Sept. 11-13 indicated 42 percent of white evangelicals disapprove of the job Bush has done as president. His approval rating among evangelicals is still better than he gets among Americans generally, but the poll shows Democrats have made slight gains among moderate white evangelical voters. Rather than running into the arms of Democrats, what the GOP really fears is that dispirited "values voters" will just stay home -- a scary prospect with tight races developing in states like Tennessee and Virginia. How do conservative leaders hope to move these voters from the pews to the polls? As my colleague R. Neal reported yesterday, the weapon of choice is ballot initiatives against gay marriage -- which now rivals abortion as the calling-card issue for the religious right. Fortunately for the GOP, battleground states Tennessee and Virginia are among the three Southern states that haven't already decided the gay marriage question (South Carolina is the other). The AP notes that James Dobson of the emerging powerhouse Focus on the Family is especially interested in Tennessee, building up an army of "church and county coordinators." But the religious right is also being hurt from within. The Christian Coalition continues to crumble, causing conservatives to lose a coordinating force in their election machinery, now being scattered to a host of competing groups. Recent events have isolated hard-right evangelicals even further. Last weekend, a widely-touted "Values Voter Summit" hosted by the Family Research Council drew stars of the Republican Party including Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to Sen. George Allen (R-VA) and Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AK). Designed to boost spirits and turn around GOP fortunes, the gathering instead descended into controversy when a Bishop Wellington Boone took the stage and announced, “I want the gays mad at me.” He succeeded, and made others mad as well when he revealed his strategy to get "the gays" to be more forceful in challenging him: Back in the days when I was a kid, and we see guys that don’t stand strong on principle, we call them “faggots.” … [People] that don’t stand up for what’s right, we say, “You’re sissified out!” “You’re a sissy!” That means you don’t stand up for principles. [Listen to the audio here; the awkward silence is deafening.] Another Christian soul, Rev. Dwight McKissic of Texas, later declared to the GOP gathering that the gay rights movement was "inspired from the pit of hell itself." This week, Rev. Jerry Falwell picked up on the theme and kept the negative controversy surrounding conservative fundamentalists at a high boil, refusing to back down from statements equating Sen. Hillary Clinton with Lucifer. UPDATE: Diane Rehm and I must be having a mind-meld: her show today is focused on "Christian Voters," and has this description: A recent poll suggests a growing number of conservative Christians have become disillusioned with the Republican party. We'll hear what's mobilizing Christian voters on the right and left of the political spectrum.
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#1. To: Morgana le Fay (#0)
Good Grief.
Oh, bullsh*t. If that were the case, then why does EVERY SINGLE political ad in the Ford/Corker race center around illegal immigration? THAT is the issue that will cost the Republicans dearly in November.
Oops...that's the Ford/Corker race here in Tennessee. It sure isn't married queers that are taking all the good paying construction jobs 'round these parts.
Oh how I hope they stay home......how I hope. I have done my first project of this year to get the folk here discouraged. I hand delivered my letter to the editor on torture, listing a good number of tyrants, and indicating we now add bush's name to the list. And then did a little tie in with values. This is just a little weekly paper, but it goes out of state a lot, too. And they called yesterday to confirm I was the writer and said they would prepare it for publication this week. :) Should be interesting because we have a couple of lefties who piss and moan and whine and groan a lot, but never put much in the way of details into their letters. And just the past few weeks, there's a rightie who has started honing in on them.....but the name-calling gets boring, or being told to 'get a life'. :)
Well done - thanks. Do you still have precinct-counted paper ballots up there? Without that, it may be a joke on us all... Cheers.
yoo-hoo! Good 4 you!
"If there’s another 9/11 or a major war in the Middle-East involving a U.S. attack on Iran, I have no doubt that there will be, the day after or within days an equivalent of a Reichstag fire decree that will involve massive detentions in this country." - Daniel Ellsberg Author, Pentagon Papers Politicians, press consider how to handle Bush rumors - Lance Gay, Scripps Howard News Service, Friday, August 13, 1999 Trash-mouth politics? I could see what a deep thinker he was way back then.
The faster the Aryan Nation mob at Freedom4um are caged and chained, the better off we'll be. I’ll cheering when they are forced to behave. - Aaron
TX will use "new technology" i.e. TheElectronicVotingMachine. Why bother?
Spooking the sheep alert!
#2. To: lodwick (#1)
Religious conservatives are unhappy the Republican-led Congress hasn't paid enough attention to "values issues," he said, noting that even a push this summer against same-sex marriage came too late.
Remember...G-d saved more animals than people on the ark. www.siameserescue.org
#3. To: All (#2)
Remember...G-d saved more animals than people on the ark. www.siameserescue.org
#4. To: lodwick (#1)
#5. To: rowdee (#4)
This is just a little weekly paper, but it goes out of state a lot, too. And they called yesterday to confirm I was the writer and said they would prepare it for publication this week. :)
#6. To: rowdee (#4)
#7. To: Morgana le Fay, lodwick (#0)
“I don’t like trash mouth politics. I don’t like tearing somebody down,” he told reporters this week. Bush has repeatedly refused to recount his drug use as a youth, insisting “it’s irrelevant what I did 20 or 30 years ago.”
#8. To: lodwick (#5)
***LEAP***
"I tell you, freedom and human rights in America are doomed. The U.S. Government will lead the American people, and the West in general, into an unbearable hell and choking life.
-- Osama bin Laden
"A prohibition law strikes at the very principles upon which our govt was founded."
- Lincoln
All our liberties are due to men who, when their conscience has compelled them, have broken the laws of the land.
--William K Clifford
#9. To: IndieTX (#8)
Saw a news story earlier that had Babs Boxer pushing a bill to give voters a 'paper ballot' option. I agree with Babs Boxer...the end MUST be near. :-)
TX will use "new technology" i.e. TheElectronicVotingMachine. Why bother?
Remember...G-d saved more animals than people on the ark. www.siameserescue.org
#10. To: IndieTX (#8)
Were it not for the possiblility of the Kinkster, I'd totally agree. I'm going to give the second box, one last shot...so to speak.
Why bother?
#11. To: who knows what evil (#2)
Immigration/invasion and this insane war on terriers are the two issues that I hope bring down the pubbies, I hope, I hope, I hope. Vote Dalmatian, for a change.
Oh, bullsh*t. If that were the case, then why does EVERY SINGLE political ad in the Ford/Corker race center around illegal immigration? THAT is the issue that will cost the Republicans dearly in November.
#12. To: IndieTX (#8)
Not even good for wagering, unless one is an insider. No, strike that, I'll bet $100 GOP will squeak by this November, any takers?
TX will use "new technology" i.e. TheElectronicVotingMachine. Why bother?
The faster the Aryan Nation mob at Freedom4um are caged and chained, the better off we'll be. I’ll cheering when they are forced to behave. - Aaron
#13. To: lodwick (#5)
I can't remember, loddy..........I usually vote absentee ballot because that assures a paper ballot and they are handcounted. I just can't remember how it was the last time when I went to the precinct.
#14. To: who knows what evil (#9)
So that is what the blurb I heard about was all about! Damn. Sonofabeach........here I go siding with a friggin libral.......and a woman at that! Sheesh.........what in the hell is this world coming to already!
Saw a news story earlier that had Babs Boxer pushing a bill to give voters a 'paper ballot' option. I agree with Babs Boxer...the end MUST be near. :-)
#15. To: Dakmar (#12)
Not unless you give me huge odds...
No, strike that, I'll bet $100 GOP will squeak by this November, any takers?
#16. To: lodwick (#15)
Uh, I left that $100 in my other pants.
The faster the Aryan Nation mob at Freedom4um are caged and chained, the better off we'll be. I’ll cheering when they are forced to behave. - Aaron
#17. To: Dakmar, lodwick (#16)
Will you be places your bets electronically?
"If there’s another 9/11 or a major war in the Middle-East involving a U.S. attack on Iran, I have no doubt that there will be, the day after or within days an equivalent of a Reichstag fire decree that will involve massive detentions in this country." - Daniel Ellsberg Author, Pentagon Papers
#18. To: Dakmar (#16)
heheh- leave it there. As you know, it's all a joke, On us.
Uh, I left that $100 in my other pants.
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