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Evangelicals -- A Drag on or Essential to the GOP?
davidlimbaugh.com ^ | 11/20/08 | david limbaugh

Posted on 11/20/2008 5:24:05 PM PST by lancer256

A good friend of mine (let's call him Bob) is convinced that unless the GOP puts abortion "aside as its focal point, it simply cannot win and regain power." That's especially interesting in light of Kathleen Parker's latest column, which disses the evangelical wing of the GOP.

Bob's point is that "we've lost a majority of women over this issue as they have become one-issue voters." It's not only liberal women but also others who believe it's simply not the government's business.

Kathleen Parker broadens the point considerably beyond abortion: "The evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh." Since the 1980s or so, says Parker, the GOP "has become increasingly beholden to an element that used to be relegated to wooden crates on street corners. ... The GOP has surrendered its high ground to its lowest brows. In the process, the party has alienated its non-base constituents."

I'll resist the temptation to respond specifically to Kathleen's uncharitable indictment of us knuckle draggers because I like Kathleen personally and because I want to respond to her and Bob's overlapping contention that certain social conservatives are dragging the party down.

(Excerpt) Read more at davidlimbaugh.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: abortion; badmove; brainfart; christianvote; cultofdeath; dontbestupid; election; evangelical; goaheadandsee; gop; gopsuicide; leftistnonsense; limbaugh; rinotripe
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To: Conservativegreatgrandma
I have voted straight ticket Republican in every election I've been old enough to vote, That said, when the GOP adopts the nonsense addressed in this article I will stay home and pray instead of voting.
61 posted on 11/21/2008 5:33:18 AM PST by DirtyHarryY2K (Don't blame Texas.. No more RINO's or Mavericks)
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To: lancer256

McCain’s divorce didn’t help him either.


62 posted on 11/21/2008 5:35:32 AM PST by Tribune7 (Obama wants to put the same crowd that ran Fannie Mae in charge of health care)
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To: lancer256; All

You know what these current RINO charges about abortion and social issues and evil scary religious conservatives are?

Opportunism, pure and simple.

Anyone with half a brain knows that abortion, etc. had diddly to do with the election this year. It was economy, economy, jobs, economy, The War, and economy that people cared about. As Limbaugh says, ~4.1 million Republicans sat this one out. I’d wager that it had more to do with the excessive economic libertarianism that got absolutely no play outside the base this year, and ticked off a lot of populist-minded GOPers.

Yet, people like Parker are trying to use this year’s losses to scare the party leadership into distancing itself from its social conservative wing - all because Parker and others don’t themselves share these socially conservative values. In other words, they are trying to split the Party, instead of focusing on the 80% of issues we all have in common, because of their own personal, petty, spiteful agendas.

To this I say: Piss off, Kathleen Parker, and any other “moderate, socially liberal” Republicans like her. We don’t need you. Once we get our heads on straight about the economy and start taking some sensible approaches to taxes, spending cuts, fair trade, and actually caring about the little guy’s employment situation beyond merely telling him that tax cuts will solve all his problems, we’ll get more than enough Reagan and populist Democrats back into the fold to replace you.


63 posted on 11/21/2008 9:51:59 AM PST by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus (Nihil utile nisi quod honestum - Marcus Tullius Cicero)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
Best post on the thread bump.
64 posted on 11/21/2008 1:28:07 PM PST by DirtyHarryY2K (Don't blame Texas.. No more RINO's or Mavericks)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

the only thing we can do now is watch obama destroy the country, then from the ashes another reagan will emerge....we need patience and time.


65 posted on 11/21/2008 1:32:39 PM PST by tioga
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To: lancer256
Here's the money quote in the article:

“Plus Karl Rove tells us that there were 4.1 million fewer Republicans voting this year than in 2004, some of whom he believed turned independent or Democratic for this election, which might validate Kathleen's thesis, except that Rove says that most of those 4.1 million “simply stayed home.”

What's even more interesting is there was an almost identical drop-off (4.1 million) of those voters who attend religious services more than once a week (evangelicals, anyone?).”

So, if McCain had not attacked evangelicals, but had their support even as much as President Bush, he would have likely won the election. This completely refutes Parker's assertion.

I couldn't believe we didn't even get a pro-evangelical candidate except Huckabee, who was a big government governor, increased taxes, and supported amnesty.

One of the depressing things about this election is that I couldn't think of a single GOP candidate who could have won. Could Fred Thompson have rallied the evangelicals to his side? All 4 million who stayed home? I don't think so.

66 posted on 11/22/2008 6:56:27 AM PST by Forgiven_Sinner (For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son that whosoever believes in Him should not die)
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To: Westbrook
If I hear, “My boss is a jerk,” the young man will have disqualified himself.

Well, then, you're a fool. Some bosses are jerks.

By your "logic", Monica Lewinsky was in the wrong -- she denounced her boss as a jerk, after all.

67 posted on 11/25/2008 12:48:54 PM PST by steve-b (Intelligent design is to evolutionary biology what socialism is to free-market economics.)
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To: Kevmo
The Big issues are the socon issues

Nope. The BIG issues are:

1. Cut taxes and spending.
2. Cut taxes and spending.
3. Cut taxes and spending.
4. Cut taxes and spending.
5. Oh, yeah, cut taxes and spending some more.

68 posted on 11/25/2008 12:51:09 PM PST by steve-b (Intelligent design is to evolutionary biology what socialism is to free-market economics.)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
the excessive economic libertarianism

What color is the sky on your planet?

Both parties bloat the size and scope of government, and recoil from the slightest hint of economic libertarianism like Dracula confronted with a garlic farm. That's why the GOP core vote (which held its nose to re-elect Bush, but exhausted its patience in the past few years) stayed home.

69 posted on 11/25/2008 12:54:50 PM PST by steve-b (Intelligent design is to evolutionary biology what socialism is to free-market economics.)
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To: SalukiLawyer
R.I.P. GOP
1854-2008

America's Independent Party
Born: 2008
Died: Whenever it abandons America's principles like the Whigs and the Republicans did.

70 posted on 11/25/2008 12:56:36 PM PST by EternalVigilance (AIPNEWS.com - America's Independent Party: "Peace through superior firepower!")
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To: steve-b

Then how do you explain why so many fiscons voted for the marxist Obama? Because they don’t hold to their own defined big issues as if they were big issues. Their issues are negotiable, which makes them smaller issues.


71 posted on 11/25/2008 5:38:35 PM PST by Kevmo (Palin/Hunter 2012)
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To: TommyDale
If the GOP thinks the Evangelicals are a drag, we can go elsewhere. Sayonara.

I am not going anywhere yet, and I hope all the rest will fight with me.
72 posted on 11/25/2008 5:42:52 PM PST by Delphinium
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To: Kevmo

Simple — the Republicans have bungled so badly that the Democrats have more credibility on fiscal issues. (Hint: Name the last president who had a surplus.)


73 posted on 11/25/2008 5:47:32 PM PST by steve-b (Intelligent design is to evolutionary biology what socialism is to free-market economics.)
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To: EternalVigilance
What do do mean Independent party? You given up?

Its looks pretty bad, but I'm not gona go without a fight.
74 posted on 11/25/2008 5:50:59 PM PST by Delphinium
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To: Kevmo
Hey Kevmo, how are you?

I am pretty angry here in my state after finding out one, (or more) of those liberal Republicans actually helped send a liberal democrat to Washington because Bill Sali was too Republican.

Hopefully it will all be exposed soon.
75 posted on 11/25/2008 5:55:20 PM PST by Delphinium
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To: Delphinium; EternalVigilance

Hi Delphinium. We’re still inundated with RINOs even here on FR. It was the RINOs that handed Obama the latest victory.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2129419/posts
4.) At first glance, one wonders how Obama gets 20% of the “Conservative” vote. A look into several polls reveals the following: Social and Gun Conservatives came out hard for McCain, people who call themselves “Conservative” because of fiscal issues gave Obama a nice cross-over.

I think it’s time to have an idealogy litmus matrix. What do you & EV think?

_____________________________________________________
Vanities Arent The Problem (Time For An FR Cleansing)
The Awesome Mind of VaBthang4 ^ | 11/06/08 | VaBthang4

Posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 6:27:52 AM by VaBthang4

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2126945/posts?page=119#119


76 posted on 11/25/2008 6:26:53 PM PST by Kevmo (Palin/Hunter 2012)
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To: steve-b

That’s because the Fiscon issues are not suitable to be the BIG Issues in the tent. It’s the SOCON issues that are suitable.


77 posted on 11/25/2008 6:28:07 PM PST by Kevmo (Palin/Hunter 2012)
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To: Forgiven_Sinner
One of the depressing things about this election is that I couldn't think of a single GOP candidate who could have won. Could Fred Thompson have rallied the evangelicals to his side? All 4 million who stayed home? I don't think so.

Hunter, Tancredo, or Keyes. They were always the only ones with a shot in hell at this. That is why "pragmatists" always get it stone dead wrong- "Electability" has everything to do about who can bring out the whole base- And that is always going to be the Reaganites.

78 posted on 11/25/2008 7:12:06 PM PST by roamer_1 (Proud 1%er... Reagan Conservatism is the only way forward.)
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To: Kevmo
No way did Obama get any conservatives.

There they go again, trying to change the meaning of conservative.

Only liberals voted for that marxist.
79 posted on 11/25/2008 9:58:07 PM PST by Delphinium
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To: Delphinium

Only liberals voted for that marxist.
***That’s why we need some kind of litmus matrix here on FR. These RINOs constantly pretend to be conservative, call themselves conservative, and maybe even think of themselves as conservative but when you scratch the surface you get an Obama voter.


80 posted on 11/26/2008 2:56:08 AM PST by Kevmo (Palin/Hunter 2012)
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