The Religious Right Is Going To Miss George Bush

There are a lot articles on the internet today about religion and the 2008 election. There are these headlines:

Faith Playing Larger Role In 2008 Race.
Conservative Catholics Organizing To Sink Rudy.
Pro-Choice Doesn't Matter To Catholics.
Fired Staffers Say McCain Was Anti-Religious.

I'm sure you could find a lot more, but these were in the popular news agregators. The first one listed has faith playing a larger role in 2008 and I'm not sure what "larger" means. It wasn't a huge deal in 2004 because Bush had the religious vote wrapped up. I think it would be more accurate to say he had the christianist vote wrapped up.

Seven years after George W. Bush won the presidency in part with a direct appeal to conservative religious voters — he cited Jesus Christ as his favorite philosopher during one debate — it seems all the leading presidential candidates are discussing their religious and moral beliefs, even when they'd rather not.

The fact that they would not choose to discuss their religious views is a positive one. The last six plus years we have been bombarded by the media that Bush has had the "conservative religious voters" support. They are also referred to as social conservatives and values voters. Whatever you call them they have been supporters of war and torture. These people have been supporters of lying and character assassination as long as a liberal was being attacked. They are supporters of the death penalty and the permanent detention of anyone George Bush decides he wants imprisoned. They are the base of the republican party.

And then you have the conservative Catholic groups that are after Giuliani.

One of the anti-Rudy groups is The Conservative Declaration. Based in Michigan, the group claims backers in over 30 states, many with ties to the hard-right. The group is led by former Buchanan supporters and Christian Coalition activists.
Paul Nagy, the group's top-gun in New Hampshire, believes nominating Giuliani would be disastrous for the American conservative movement. Along with other activists, Nagy signed a letter seeking additional signatories to the anti-Rudy declaration. The letter states: "Rudy Giuliani is an unacceptable Republican nominee for President of the United States. He is pro-abortion, pro-partial birth abortion, pro-registration of handguns, and pro-homosexual rights. He is the most liberal Republican candidate for President in our nation's history."

As you can see, these people are only interested in the social aspect of his candidacy. They are intolerant and basically don't care about his competence or his stance on anything other than abortion and gay rights. I'm not sure why they threw in the handgun thing. I guess to get other right-wing support.

Then there are the reports about the problem that Catholics present to the pollsters and campaign managers. Where they are very much anti-abortion, they are also against the death penalty and are for social programs for the disadvantaged that are more in line with the democrats.

A new Rasmussen Poll finds that just 28% of Catholics think that Pope Benedict XVI should deny communion to pro-choice Catholic politicians. As a whole, only 28% of all Americans agree with the Pope on this one, and 76% of pro-choice Americans think the Pope is wrong.

To top this off there is the story about some fired McCain campaign workers who made the claim he's not quite sincere in his courtship of his party's base.

“‘In the end, you came away with the strong sense that they had contempt for the faith-based community,’ says Marlene Elwell, one of those fired staffers. Elwell, a prominent Christian-right activist, was hired by McCain in December 2005 to be national director of his ‘Americans of Faith’ coalition. ‘The way we were being treated it was as if we had leprosy.‘

It has become clear in the last four years that McCain doesn't stand for anything except getting elected. He could have made a difference being a moderate voice, but being slimed by Bush and Rove in South Carolina in 2004 seems to be something he can't overcome.

Until November, 2008 we will be bombarded with these stories as the candidates do their square dance, moving from one partner to the next, changing their steps and just generally spinning around in circles. I just don't get it. Why desire to be aligned with people who promote all the worst in America.

I want my president to be a man of deep convictions, either spiritual or intellectual, but I hope he's both. I would like to have a president who prays to God, but doesn't hear God talking to him. We've had enough of leaders hearing voices.

When I look at the leading contenders for president I am heartened by the fact that these are not people who will sell out to one self-interested group. Any of these people are willing to dance with the so-called values voters but they're not going to marry them like George Bush did and in the next four years you'll witness their decline.

Before George Bush became governor of Texas he didn't stand for or believe in anything. He didn't stand for anything until Karl Rove told him what to believe in. Rove knew he had a blank sheet of paper and he knew just what to write on it.

All of the leading candidates for president are multi-dimensional and have varied beliefs on social issues and that's why the republican base can't support any of them. They had it all with Bush and they will only get a piece here or a piece there with any of the others.

It's great to think that the republican base will continue to be unhappy with the candidates. If they are unhappy they will sit out the election. When you believe you know the Mind Of God it's hard to compromise on what you think is the lesser of two evils.

That's good for us, maybe they'll spend some time in church actually praying. I can't think of any group of people that needs God's help more than they do.

Jim Martin