GOP should terminate the Christian right
The Hill | October 22, 2003 | Dick Morris
In the 1970s, Ronald Reagan made a pact with the Christian right, opening the anti-tax, anti-government, pro-defense GOP to the opponents of abortion rights. The coalition between economic and social conservatives animated his 1980 triumph and made the ensuing 10 years into a Republican decade. But ever since, the Republican Party has paid the price for its coalition with the advocates of bedroom regulation.
The Christian right has so alienated women that it has opened up a gender gap that often swells to more than 20 points, crippling Republican candidates. It is about time that the Republican Party realizes that the Christian right is doing to it exactly what the radical black Rainbow Coalition of Jesse Jackson did to the Democratic Party in the ’80s — making them unelectable. Their embrace is the kiss of death. It is not that the religious right is wrong. Right or wrong, it gets in the way of so much good that the Republican Party could achieve if it were not in the Christian right’s grasp.
Will the Republican Party escape from the embrace of the pro-lifers so that it can nominate candidates like Rudy Giuliani, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice? Likely not. Those who see each election as an opportunity to hold candidates to litmus tests on key social issues are not likely to relinquish their hold or relax their vigilance.
The fact that this way lies defeat seems not to matter. The example of Arnold Schwarzenegger will likely make no impression as they proceed to drum out of the primary anyone whose views are sufficiently centrist to permit them access to the majority of women voters in the general election.
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Luckily the GOP ignored Morris and GWB went on to win by large majorities of Christian voters.
ACTION PROJECT
Tell Fox News-TV (where Morris is a commentator) that he has become a distinct liability to the preeminent conservative channel. In The Hill article (posted above), Morris attempted to marginalize social conservatives before the election, and after the election, minimized Christians huge electoral win. Should Fox employ an individual who is incapable of speaking to their audience? Comments@foxnews.com
If Free Republic were a religious forum instead of a political one, perhaps that would make sense. But even as a conservative forum, we think that stuff from Maureen Dowd is often worthy of derision discussion.
What would be worthy of a Taliban comparison is the banning of any articles that don't agree with our political or religious points of view.