In Search of a Political Savior - Evangelicals aren't flocking to the GOP front runners

[Kadie]

In Search of a Political Savior
Evangelicals aren't flocking to the GOP front runners, and don't know where to turn.

By Eve Conant
Newsweek
June 4, 2007 issue - They'd come to pay their respects to the past, but the talk soon turned to the future. The country's leading conservative Christians convened in Lynchburg, Va., last week to bury the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the televangelist who, decades ago, fused politics and religion and helped define the GOP as the party of the faithful. Now, as the mourners straggled out of the church, some wondered aloud about the 2008 presidential election. Did any of the 10 Republican candidates deserve their coveted blessing? "Ralph Reed asked me who I was interested in," says Richard Viguerie, the longtime conservative political consultant. Viguerie had no good answer. He turned the question back on Reed, a Republican operative who once led the Christian Coalition. Reed shrugged his shoulders. "There's just nobody out there," says Viguerie.

Surveying the crowded GOP field, many evangelicals are feeling unloved, and unsettled. Conservative Christians were crucial in sending George W. Bush to the White House—and were even more important to his narrow re-election in 2004—but many evangelical leaders complain that he hasn't shown much thanks, and their devotion to the born-again president is waning. They are disappointed that he has abandoned his election-year promise to push for an anti-gay-marriage amendment, even as Dick Cheney is posing for pictures with the newborn son of his lesbian daughter and her partner. Though Bush talked a lot during the campaign about the "culture of life," many Christian conservatives do not believe he uses his bully pulpit enough to denounce abortion. Disappointment in Bush is now translating into deep skepticism among evangelicals about the men who are vying to succeed him. So far, the leading GOP candidates leave them cold. Front runner Rudy Giuliani is tainted by his messy divorces and support for abortion rights—a deal breaker for Christian conservatives. McCain is against abortion, but evangelical leaders haven't forgotten that he denounced them as "agents of intolerance" back in 2000. His campaign-reform bill is also deeply unpopular among religious interest groups.

snip...
The big worry among some Republican strategists: that millions of evangelicals who turned out for Bush in 2000 and 2004 won't crank up their formidable money and promotion machine if the party nominates a Giuliani or a McCain. Grover Norquist, the influential conservative strategist and president of Americans for Tax Reform, says that no matter how upset evangelicals may be, they aren't going to do anything that hands the White House to the Democrats. "Evangelicals will vote for whoever can beat Hillary. They are more sophisticated than they were 20 years ago." But others disagree. "Where you won't see them is working the phone banks or sending out mailings," says Tony Perkins, head of the conservative Family Research Council. "It's foolish and naive for moderate Republicans to think we'll just push aside the issues."

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18881808/site/newsweek/?from=rss

[TwilightGardener]

1. Nobody meets their ideal of Jesus-like perfection. As long as everyone

is flawed (or even HUMAN) they're dissatisfied. Glad they're unhappy. Fuck 'em all.

[Vincardog]

2. Cry me a river for the small minded Theocrats who can't find another shill for their views.

If they cant find another lying scumbag to push their Small minded agenda TOO FUCKING BAD.

[pretzel4gore]

3. let's just outlaw the gop....

huntem down like mad puppy dogs...viguerie is a ted bundy like moral imbecile; yet here he is sppouting nonsense for more national exposure. Question: how much damage can a political entity like the USA tolerate w/out mandating what isn't proscribed?
if thieves have been running the storefront for 7 long years, what's left in the warehouse?
if the media is liberal, and the most powerful forces in society are 'conservative', meaning they aren't getting served, then how badly are the rest of us being served?

[elocs]

4. The Evangelicals may just be staying home in 2008--real bad news for Republicans.

Romney being a Mormon does not sit well with evangelicals and fundamentalists because no matter what his changing values may be, Mormon=cult. Bush pretty much used them, laughed at them, and then ignored them when he no longer needed them.

Before we use a broad brush and paint all evangelicals as low life bigoted boogeymen, remember, most of them are just ordinary people. They are your neighbors and coworkers and most of them are good people. Don't judge them all by their leaders.
Not all Catholics blindly follow the Pope and not even all Republicans are happy or proud of Bush and the direction of their party. The world is not all black and white.

[jwirr]

6. That is what I thought also. They will just stay home.

[alarimer]

5. The Fundies have too much political power as it is

Both parties need to marginalize them. But especially the Democrats.

[muntrv]

7. Aw the poor theocons!!! Can't use the government to foist their religion on us.

:nopity: :nopity: :nopity: