Posted by
David Hart on Sunday, November 23, 2008 3:09:54 PM
Kathleen is right on most counts. If the GOP is ever to get my vote again then it needs to get out of the God business. Indeed, the religious right is antithetical to libertarian ideas. Many are dominionists who wish to control what books you read, what movies you see and what television programs you watch; Ultimately how and what you think. Moreover, they seem to be obsessed with who I have sex with. The GOP does not need to support or encourage the Morality Police. Furthermore, it seems somewhat arduous to craft long term policies in concert with end-of-world, rapture ready fetishists.
Where I disagree with Kathleen Parker is her assertion that the GOP has concluded "But we need the votes." It's not the lever pullers that the GOP is addicted to; It is the foot soldiers. The religious right have "faithfully" become the envelope stuffers, bell ringers, and telephone callers.
In return for the mighty army, the GOP must support religious policies - some of which are illogical if not constitutionally offensive if one embraces the "Establishment Clause." The Bush administration has probably set back stem cell research a decade in order to protect some microscopic goo that the fundamentalists have declared is human life. If we want to maintain our stature as the most techincally advanced nation in the world (at least I hope that we still are) then we need to stop entertaining the embarassment of dumbing down our kids with Intelligent Design. What is most galling about ID is the attempt (with GOP cooperation) to pass it off as something other than Creationism. Furthermore, if we really want to decrease teen pregnancies then it seems essential acknowledge - politically - that "abtincence only" is non-secular hogwash.
The religious right are brilliant with semantics. Those who favor reproductive choice are pro-abortion. Anti-gay is pro-marriage and so on.
Nobody likes abortion. However, if I had a pregnant teen daughter, we would not want the government to eliminate one of our options because it owes something to the religious right.
What should scare the heck out of fiscal conservatives and Republicans is that they have lost the support of younger voters in spectacular fashion. Thus, the map of the bible belt that now represents the "red zone" is going to continue to shrink.
The only solution to declining returns is to get back to secular government that our founding fathers really had in mind. The choice is simple; Get out of the God business or go out of business entirely.