Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The GOP -- Not a Club For Christians
Townhall.com ^ | December 12, 2012 | Jonah Goldberg

Posted on 12/12/2012 5:31:23 AM PST by Kaslin

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-60 next last
To: Strategerist
If you want to create a regional party in the Bible Belt that has no ability to ever win the Presidency, and ends the GOP chances of doing so till the end of time

That's called "the catbird seat" and is a good place to be.

At least, it was good enough for John McCain and the RiNO's when they put together the "Gang of 14" -- remember that? -- in the Senate.

Sauce for the RiNO is sauce for the Tea Party. We can broker stuff, too.

Quit warning us off the prize.

21 posted on 12/12/2012 7:06:48 AM PST by lentulusgracchus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: lentulusgracchus

He’s saying no such thing. He’s simply saying that tying the Republican Party to one faith is not a very good strategy to win over people of other faiths or no faiths. I’m saying that as a self-identified Christian.


22 posted on 12/12/2012 7:25:39 AM PST by driftless2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Conservatives should fight diversity itself. Fight the culture war first, win elections second.


23 posted on 12/12/2012 7:39:00 AM PST by kreitzer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: lentulusgracchus; Trailerpark Badass
He's telling you to drop the Christianity, abrogate your faith publicly, and to burn incense on the public altar of "humanism".

Stop being such an American! You're making the new neighbors nervous!

I don't read it that way at all. Goldberg is a Jew, and doesn't obviously take offense at the invocation of the name of Christ...he merely is speaking, seems to me, about the need to reach out to people of other faiths who share the same economic and social principles. I agree with him.

I just really don't care anymore about people for whom any mention of Christianity is taken as some kind of existential threat.
No other religion on this planet is expected to self-censor itself in public so thoroughly, and no other one does.
I don't want any more hot house flowers who wet their pants when they hear someone else's opinion; this country already has enough of them.
Is this the great "immigrant spirit" we're supposed to worship?

I agree with you, but I don't think that was Goldberg's POV. He isn't saying "Shut up Christians", he is saying "Republicans don't have to be Christians." And I think that is true.

24 posted on 12/12/2012 7:39:12 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

First off the Mourdock and Aikin loss.When it comes to defending a fundamental religious concept the godless ones have been pretty good at attacking an article of faith and reducing it to ridicule. Now the camp followers in the media as well as certain “conservative” agnostic or atheistic loudmouths help piling it on and the stampede is triggered.
The question becomes how should conservatives handle it ?
Here is a suggested response...

“I happen to believe bla bla bla which will has nothing to do with any legislation that may cross my desk and never will....At least I believe in God ...as a political party God is someone they booed...use the convention clip ...and the ten commandments.... and if you examine (insert name) conduct in office (his her) re-election seems to be a re-newall for the license to steal
...


25 posted on 12/12/2012 7:39:30 AM PST by mosesdapoet ("A voice crying in the wilderness make streight for the way of the Lord")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: driftless2
He’s simply saying that tying the Republican Party to one faith is not a very good strategy to win over people of other faiths or no faiths. I’m saying that as a self-identified Christian.

Your statement would make sense if the country had 46 faiths, with none of them more than a 4% share.

Fact is, the country was founded on a compact, the compact itself was founded on, reliant on, the People's having Christian principles and good moral character. The Framers themselves emphasized this point as a caveat, over and over.

You can't split differences or find common ground between Christianity and Voodoo or Candomble or Palo Mayombe or Hinduism the way you can with Judaism. Theoretically, one could stretch and include Islam as one of the "peoples of the Book", if it were not for Islam's hostility, and that of its chief aggrandizers.

One religion has to predominate, and Christianity has the best moral, historical, and pragmatic claim to being that religion. Goldberg is just doing his Jewish demurrer thing -- he uses the rhetorical device of preterition to lay his marker here -- in asking Christians to quit being so Christian about it. Well, sorry, Jonah, but when these Protestants invoke the protection and wisdom of Providence, they have a strong tendency -- a teaching by their Nazarene Rabbi -- to do it that way.

26 posted on 12/12/2012 7:42:52 AM PST by lentulusgracchus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Strategerist
Imagine if most of the Republican Party was Hindu, you generally agreed with the Party on policy, but at Republican events, in articles, etc. there was as much mentioning of Brahma and Hinduism as there is of Christianity today.

Would it bother you in the slightest?


Only if they wouldn't let me eat my cheeseburger in peace.
27 posted on 12/12/2012 7:54:24 AM PST by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Joe Boucher

I am with you and for a new party for Conservatives... 100%!

LLS


28 posted on 12/12/2012 8:09:57 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (WOLVERINES!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: lentulusgracchus
It will mean that Christians will be pushed into the hinterland.
29 posted on 12/12/2012 8:12:14 AM PST by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Strategerist
It is you that needs to understand that as soon as boehner caves... it is the end of YOUR party. NEVER AGAIN!!! romney and ryan were the last to enjoy the votes of us that gave them ONE LAST CHANCE. No do overs... no mercy and no quarter. Don't kid YOURSELF! republicans are hated by the left... by the average American and by most Conservatives. They are beyond saving... they are the NEW COKE.

LLS

30 posted on 12/12/2012 8:14:47 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (WOLVERINES!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The GOP - not a club for Conservatives.

It is important to remember that a political party is not about principles, but about power for its members. If the GOP doesn’t see a path to power through Conservatism, it isn’t going to be Conservative. Since it is likely we have reached both a Demographic and Social tipping point, we can expect to see both the Democrats and Republicans heading left as fast as they possibly can.


31 posted on 12/12/2012 8:19:01 AM PST by Little Ray (Get back to work. Your urban masters need their EBTs refilled.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

How can one call the GOP a “Christian club” when it nominated for its presidential standard bearer a non-Christian?


32 posted on 12/12/2012 8:21:45 AM PST by Fiji Hill (Io Triumphe!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Little Ray

republicans cannot win with 90% of the support of Conservatives and when 45% of the party walks away from the republican party, they will never win another national election. They have lost most of us on the right... they will see their treason rot the fruit on their vines.

LLS


33 posted on 12/12/2012 8:22:52 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (WOLVERINES!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Did Goldberg watch the Republican National Convention? Each day, the invocation and the benediction were performed by someone of a different faith.


34 posted on 12/12/2012 8:24:56 AM PST by Fiji Hill (Io Triumphe!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LibLieSlayer

The GOP does not care whether it is in majority or not, as log as its members get to keep “their” seats.


35 posted on 12/12/2012 9:18:18 AM PST by Little Ray (Get back to work. Your urban masters need their EBTs refilled.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: Little Ray

Many will be voted out of office in 2014.

LLS


36 posted on 12/12/2012 9:27:23 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (WOLVERINES!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Tennessee Nana

“Christians are Conservatives...”

Just as the overwhelming majority of “conservatives” (in the traditional sense) are Christians — and always will be.

The reality here, uncomfortable to many, is that Christianity is the foundation upon which traditional “American conservatism” is constructed.

Take away that foundation, and the edifice built upon it collapses.

The neocons are desperately trying to tiptoe their way around this truth, refusing to acknowledge it or confront it head-on. Goldberg’s article above is an example of such footwork.

The prime reason that the majority of the Asian newcomers do not and will not embrace traditional conservatism is because they’re not Christians. They may indeed be hard-working, but they are also from a culture that traditionally embraces “conformity” to the “system”, a concept almost anathema to the “Scots-Irish” vein of conservatism that celebrates individualism and a mistrust of government.

I doubt the Republican party will ever do much better with Asians than it’s currently doing with Hispanics. Oh, they’ll try and they’ll pander, and in doing so lose many of the Euro-conservatives they actually -need- to remain the regional political party that they are “shrinking towards”.

It will probably do then more harm than good.

Mr. Goldberg, wake up!


37 posted on 12/12/2012 9:34:35 AM PST by Road Glide
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Strategerist; heavy9

“If you want to create a regional party in the Bible Belt that has no ability to ever win the Presidency, and ends the GOP chances of doing so till the end of time, that’s fine, but be sure you are clear on the actual implications.”

The Pubbies seem to be doing a fine job in “regionalizing” themselves, without any help from heavy9 at all.

Want to see them REALLY self-destruct? Then abandon the Christians while trying to coax non-Christians into the party.

The results will be:
- Very few non-Christians will join up, but...
- Millions of Christians will leave in disgust.

There, that fixed it!
That’s what I call strategery!


38 posted on 12/12/2012 9:40:46 AM PST by Road Glide
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Fiji Hill

“How can one call the GOP a “Christian club” when it nominated for its presidential standard bearer a non-Christian?”

Very good point.

Do you think that could have been a factor as to why a large number of Republicans/conservatives simply stayed home this past election?

I do.


39 posted on 12/12/2012 9:48:23 AM PST by Road Glide
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Republicans need to reach out to the blacks...Republicans need to reach out to the hispanics...Republicans need to reach out to asians...

How about reaching out to the NINETY MILLION eligible voters who stay home on Election Day?

40 posted on 12/12/2012 9:54:10 AM PST by who knows what evil? (G-d saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.org.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-60 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson