Will the Religious Right Revolt & Bolt?
Frederick Clarkson printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Fri May 18, 2007 at 12:51:08 AM EST
James Dobson, writing at the religious right news site, World Net Daily, declared:
"Speaking as a private citizen and not on behalf of any organization or party, I cannot, and will not, vote for Rudy Giuliani in 2008. It is an irrevocable decision. If given a Hobson's - Dobson's? - choice between him and Sens. Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, I will either cast my ballot for an also-ran - or if worse comes to worst - not vote in a presidential election for the first time in my adult life. My conscience and my moral convictions will allow me to do nothing else."

The former New York Mayor is also not the choice of early religious right strategist and direct mail entrepreneur Richard Viguerie:

"If the Republican Party nominates Rudy Giuliani as its candidate for either president or vice president, I will personally work to defeat the GOP ticket in 2008."
Much more on the flip:
Viguerie, who is also the author of Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause, added:

"Rudy Giuliani is wrong on all of the social issues, is wrong on the Second Amendment, and is pretty much a blank slate on all other issues of importance to conservatives. If the Republican Party nominates him, it is saying to the American people that it has lost all purpose except the raw political desire to hold power. It will be time to put the GOP out of its misery."

The grand coalition between business Republicans and the religious right is, like the religious right itself, undergoing an historic transformation. It has always been an uneasy coalition, but party loyalty appears to be an increasingly one way street, as Republicans who are also social libertarians on such matters as abortion and homosexuality, or indeed, hold mainstream views on separation of church and state, are deemed unacceptable as national candidates by the religious right. On the other hand, Republicans who do not share the religious right social agenda are expected to fall in.

Meanwhile, the overtly theocratic Constitution Party, the nation's third largest political party, is wondering whether 2008 might finally see a sufficient splintering of the GOP to attract a candidate of sufficient national standing, and sufficient grassroots oomph -- to gain a spot on the national stage. For now, the party seems limited to putting out wistful press releases -- like the one praising the performance of Representatives Ron Paul (R-TX) and Tom Tancredo (R-CO) in the latest GOP debate.

Dobson has threatened to bolt the GOP before, but no one took him seriously. He voted for the candidate of the Constitution Party once, but only told the world after the fact. Thus this may be his most forceful such pronouncement to date, and in the wake of the death of Jerry Falwell, the hospitalization of D. James Kennedy and the marginalization of Pat Robertson, Dobson, along with his ally Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, is certainly the most prominent and singularly most powerful leader of the religious right. And his drawing of the line in the sand is making national news. But he is far from alone.

Meanwhile, the religious right has always been multidimensional, and no one person has ever been the sole spokesman for the movement and its many interactive parts. An overtly prochoice pol like Giuliani was never going to get early primary support from any leader of the religious right, but what is interesting here is that Dobson has closed the door to supporting the GOP ticket if Giuliani wins the party nomination. Richard Viguerie is saying the same thing -- and more than a little more. So far, Viguerie has mostly urged conservartives to withhold support for the party and the leading candidates, and taking a wait and see attitude. But Viguerie, who in the 1970s (unsuccessfully) sought with other movement conservatives to join forces with the American Independent Party of George Wallace, is a different matter than Dobson. Now in his 80s, Viguerie does not have the clout he once did. However, he has the standing to say these things and be heard. Viguerie and other movement leaders quietly worked against Gerald Ford in 1976 when they failed to get Reagan the nomination. They decided four years of Jimmy Carter would be preferable to eight years of Ford.

That Viguerie is ratcheting up the rhetoric to the point of saying if Giuliani is the candidate, "it will be time to put the GOP out of its misery" is significant.




Display:
and for everyone else for that matter.

The transition period for the religious right I wrote about the other day is well underway, and happens to have come at a time when there no incumbent presidident or vice president in the running for 2008.  American politics is wide open, and for the religious right, that makes things especially tricky.

by Frederick Clarkson on Fri May 18, 2007 at 01:50:47 AM EST


development considering Dobson on his radio show was just talking up national security issues and Rev. Laarman was suggesting a shift of focus for the religious right towards anti-muslim rhetoric and away from the usual gay and abortion agenda.

by Carlos on Fri May 18, 2007 at 11:21:20 AM EST


WWW Talk To Action


Cognitive Dissonance & Dominionism Denial
There is new research on why people are averse to hearing or learning about the views of ideological opponents. Based on evaluation of five......
By Frederick Clarkson (374 comments)
Will the Air Force Do Anything To Rein In Its Dynamic Duo of Gay-Bashing, Misogynistic Bloggers?
"I always get nervous when I see female pastors/chaplains. Here is why everyone should as well: "First, women are not called to be pastors,......
By Chris Rodda (195 comments)
The Legacy of Big Oil
The media is ablaze with the upcoming publication of David Grann's book, Killers of the Flower Moon. The shocking non fiction account of the......
By wilkyjr (110 comments)
Gimme That Old Time Dominionism Denial
Over the years, I have written a great deal here and in other venues about the explicitly theocratic movement called dominionism -- which has......
By Frederick Clarkson (101 comments)
History Advisor to Members of Congress Completely Twists Jefferson's Words to Support Muslim Ban
Pseudo-historian David Barton, best known for his misquoting of our country's founders to promote the notion that America was founded as a Christian nation,......
By Chris Rodda (113 comments)
"Christian Fighter Pilot" Calls First Lesbian Air Force Academy Commandant a Liar
In a new post on his "Christian Fighter Pilot" blog titled "BGen Kristin Goodwin and the USAFA Honor Code," Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan......
By Chris Rodda (144 comments)
Catholic Right Leader Unapologetic about Call for 'Death to Liberal Professors' -- UPDATED
Today, Donald Trump appointed C-FAM Executive Vice President Lisa Correnti to the US Delegation To UN Commission On Status Of Women. (C-FAM is a......
By Frederick Clarkson (126 comments)
Controlling Information
     Yesterday I listened to Russ Limbaugh.  Rush advised listeners it would be best that they not listen to CNN,MSNBC, ABC, CBS and......
By wilkyjr (118 comments)
Is Bannon Fifth-Columning the Pope?
In December 2016 I wrote about how White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who likes to flash his Catholic credentials when it comes to......
By Frank Cocozzelli (250 comments)
Ross Douthat's Hackery on the Seemingly Incongruous Alliance of Bannon & Burke
Conservative Catholic writer Ross Douthat has dissembled again. This time, in a February 15, 2017 New York Times op-ed titled The Trump Era's Catholic......
By Frank Cocozzelli (64 comments)
`So-Called Patriots' Attack The Rule Of Law
Every so often, right-wing commentator Pat Buchanan lurches out of the far-right fever swamp where he has resided for the past 50 years to......
By Rob Boston (161 comments)
Bad Faith from Focus on the Family
Here is one from the archives, Feb 12, 2011, that serves as a reminder of how deeply disingenuous people can be. Appeals to seek......
By Frederick Clarkson (176 comments)
The Legacy of George Wallace
"One need not accept any of those views to agree that they had appealed to real concerns of real people, not to mindless, unreasoning......
By wilkyjr (70 comments)
Betsy DeVos's Mudsill View of Public Education
My Talk to Action colleague Rachel Tabachnick has been doing yeoman's work in explaining Betsy DeVos's long-term strategy for decimating universal public education. If......
By Frank Cocozzelli (80 comments)
Prince and DeVos Families at Intersection of Radical Free Market Privatizers and Religious Right
This post from 2011 surfaces important information about President-Elect Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. -- FC Erik Prince, Brother of Betsy......
By Rachel Tabachnick (218 comments)

Respect for Others? or Political Correctness?
The term "political correctness" as used by Conservatives and Republicans has often puzzled me: what exactly do they mean by it? After reading Chip Berlin's piece here-- http://www.talk2action.org/story/2016/7/21/04356/9417 I thought about what he explained......
MTOLincoln (253 comments)
Fear
What I'm feeling now is fear.  I swear that it seems my nightmares are coming true with this new "president".  I'm also frustrated because so many people are not connecting all the dots! I've......
ArchaeoBob (107 comments)
"America - love it or LEAVE!"
I've been hearing that and similar sentiments fairly frequently in the last few days - far FAR more often than ever before.  Hearing about "consequences for burning the flag (actions) from Trump is chilling!......
ArchaeoBob (211 comments)
"Faked!" Meme
Keep your eyes and ears open for a possible move to try to discredit the people openly opposing Trump and the bigots, especially people who have experienced terrorism from the "Right"  (Christian Terrorism is......
ArchaeoBob (165 comments)
More aggressive proselytizing
My wife told me today of an experience she had this last week, where she was proselytized by a McDonald's employee while in the store. ......
ArchaeoBob (163 comments)
See if you recognize names on this list
This comes from the local newspaper, which was conservative before and took a hard right turn after it was sold. Hint: Sarah Palin's name is on it!  (It's also connected to Trump.) ......
ArchaeoBob (169 comments)
Unions: A Labor Day Discussion
This is a revision of an article which I posted on my personal board and also on Dailykos. I had an interesting discussion on a discussion board concerning Unions. I tried to piece it......
Xulon (156 comments)
Extremely obnoxious protesters at WitchsFest NYC: connected to NAR?
In July of this year, some extremely loud, obnoxious Christian-identified protesters showed up at WitchsFest, an annual Pagan street fair here in NYC.  Here's an account of the protest by Pagan writer Heather Greene......
Diane Vera (130 comments)
Capitalism and the Attack on the Imago Dei
I joined this site today, having been linked here by Crooksandliars' Blog Roundup. I thought I'd put up something I put up previously on my Wordpress blog and also at the DailyKos. As will......
Xulon (329 comments)
History of attitudes towards poverty and the churches.
Jesus is said to have stated that "The Poor will always be with you" and some Christians have used that to refuse to try to help the poor, because "they will always be with......
ArchaeoBob (148 comments)
Alternate economy medical treatment
Dogemperor wrote several times about the alternate economy structure that dominionists have built.  Well, it's actually made the news.  Pretty good article, although it doesn't get into how bad people could be (have been)......
ArchaeoBob (90 comments)
Evidence violence is more common than believed
Think I've been making things up about experiencing Christian Terrorism or exaggerating, or that it was an isolated incident?  I suggest you read this article (linked below in body), which is about our great......
ArchaeoBob (214 comments)

More Diaries...




All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Comments, posts, stories, and all other content are owned by the authors. Everything else © 2005 Talk to Action, LLC.