McCain and the State of the Religious Right
Posted by Mike E on July 4, 2008
Yes, obviously the Religious Right will rally to McCain — both its leadership and its rank and file. But between now and the Republican Convention we can see the tug of war within their political coalition. We can see the debate over policy, and the measuring of relative weight.
Yes, obviously, there is an on going danger of the far right wing of the GOP pushing the society into a new leap (a national security state in the wake of a new attack on U.S. soil is imho a serious possibility) — but what are the chances of a christian theocracy (which some have chicken-littled for a few years)? What is the role of the christian right WITHIN the GOP coalition (in regard to other forces — the neo cons, the business anti-taxers, the quasi-libertarian mountain rightists, the racist white/english only crowds etc). How do these currents relate to divisions and power struggles within the ruling class itself (divisions over policy, but also institutional divisions and regional divisions, and long range divisions over “what will this country and the world look like in a generation?”)
Conservative Evangelicals Discuss Backing McCain
Monday 02 June 2008
[thanks to truthout for posting this]
by: The Associated Press
John McCain may not be out of the running with conservative evangelicals after all. (Photo: Reuters)
“The only evangelicals that will support Obama are the ones who haven’t read their Bible,” Burress said.
Conservative evangelical leaders met privately this week to discuss putting aside their misgivings about John McCain and coalescing around the Republican’s presidential bid while urging him to consider social conservative favorite Mike Huckabee as a running mate.
About 90 of the movement’s leading activists gathered Tuesday night in Denver for a meeting convened by Mathew Staver, who heads the Florida-based legal advocacy group Liberty Counsel.
Many evangelical leaders backed other GOP candidates early on and remain wary of McCain’s commitment to their causes and his previous criticisms of movement leaders. But with the presidential field now set, many evangelical leaders are taking a more pragmatic view, realizing also that the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, is making a strong play for evangelical voters and talking freely about his faith.
“Our shared core values compel us to unite and choose the presidential candidate that best advances those values,” said Staver, who previously backed Huckabee’s bid. “That obvious choice is Sen. John McCain. I think people left the meeting in unity the likes of which have not been evident through the primaries.”
The group also agreed to sign a letter urging the McCain campaign to consider Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and Southern Baptist minister, as his vice presidential choice, said another participant, Phil Burress. Burress, who heads an Ohio group that helped pass an anti-gay marriage measure in that state in 2004, was among a group of conservative Christian leaders who met with McCain last week.
Burress characterized the Huckabee overture as a “suggestion, not a demand.”
“This is a man you don’t threaten,” Burress said of McCain. “His principles are his principles. The last thing you want to do is try to force him to do something he doesn’t want to do because he’d probably do the opposite.”
Burress said that while Huckabee is a favorite of Christian conservatives, the most important thing is that McCain’s running mate be “pro-life and pro-family.” Huckabee isn’t a favorite of all evangelical leaders, either; some dislike his populist message, emphasis on the environment and economic positions.
The leaders meeting in Denver included Phyllis Schlafly, head of the Eagle Forum; “Left Behind” co-author Tim LaHaye and his wife, Beverly, founder of Concerned Women for America; David Barton, founder of WallBuilders; Rick Scarborough of Vision America; and Don Hodel, a former interior secretary and former president of Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, according to Staver.
James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family and a fan of neither McCain nor Obama, did not attend. Dobson has been in California working on a new book, aides have said.
Time magazine first reported on the meeting on its Web site Wednesday.
Staver said the result will be more leaders “energizing their base” and targeted efforts in battleground states and states with anti-gay marriage ballot initiatives this fall such as Florida and California.
“Obama is a considerable threat to our values,” Staver said. “At the same time, Sen. McCain recently has been reaching out to evangelicals and conservative voters that we represent.”
Even so, Burress said that at this point, conservative Christians are motivated more out of opposition to Obama than enthusiasm for McCain.
“People are not saying, ‘Let’s all go out and support John McCain,”‘ Burress said. “It’s more like, ‘We have to do what we have to do for our country.’ Basically, that boiled down to John McCain.”
Although McCain opposes abortion rights, his support for embryonic stem cell research and opposition to a federal amendment prohibiting gay marriage clashes with the widely held social conservative view.
Obama this week called for expanding White House efforts to steer social service dollars to religious groups, and he has developed campaign events targeting religious voters. But the Democrat’s support for abortion rights and gay rights calls into question how many evangelical votes he can win.
“The only evangelicals that will support Obama are the ones who haven’t read their Bible,” Burress said. “The more and more we learn about Obama, the closer and closer we get to McCain.”
“We have agreed,” he said, “that we’ll be working hard the next few months.”
Comments said
High-profile evangelists identified as “Christian Fascists” by the RCP, and depicted as the driving force within the Republican Party, are disappointed in the pool of Republican presidential candidates, offended by McCain’s repudiation of John Hagee and Rod Parsley, unenthusiastic about McCain’s politics. Has the RCP summed up that the threat of theocracy has receded?
Carl Davidson said
I think the danger is still there, but has receded.
All the contradictions in their alliances, and among themselves, has had more impact than some might have thought.
–A number of the top theocrats, or those close to them, have lost their positions in government.
–A conflict has developed among the evangelicals, with global warming and the war fueling a breakaway to the center or even to progressives.
–Huge mobilizations, the immigrant rights people, the Obama insurgency, even the feminists around Hillary, have given greater activist social weight to those against theocracy. In the past, James Dobson wouldn’t have met much challenge on the right. But now even some evangelicals are opposing him.
That’s sketchy and imcomplete for sure, but I think it’s pretty clear than this is not exactly the time for a mass campaign for atheism, if it ever is.
BobH said
People interested in the danger of Christian fascism might want to listen to this week’s “On the Media” from NPR at:
http://www.onthemedia.org
There’s an interview with Christine Wicker, author of “The Fall of the Evangelical Nation” that argues that evangelical christians are far fewer, and far less influential, than many people believe.
There’s also an interview with Jeff Sharlet, author of “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power”, which looks at the elite group of rich, influential christians which have considerable power in government, as well as their contradictions with the “mass movement” evangelicals of the Falwell, Robertson, etc. type.
Libertarian Lurker said
Mike asks “What is the role of the christian right WITHIN the GOP coalition (in regard to other forces — the neo cons, the business anti-taxers, the quasi-libertarian mountain rightists, the racist white/english only crowds etc?”
Funny — if you talk to lots of Christian rightists (I have) you’ll often hear that they feel used by the GOP. In their view, Republicans will trot out the “three Gs” (God, guns, and gays) plus abortion and so on at electiontime, but then do little or nothing to advance the social conservative agenda. Despite this feeling of abandonment, they tend to still rally around the Republicans. And especially after 9/11, for many religious right activists, their pro-war sentiment has tended to outweigh perceived GOP abandonment of their other concerns. So I wouldn’t look for a large-scale abandonment of McCain by the Christian Right, even though McCain isn’t really “one of them” at all.
In terms of the “other forces” you outline — McCain probably represents the neocons better than most. But that’s tricky — the “neocons” are more of an ideological force within the DC think tank world that has gained the upper hand on the right in the post-9/11 era. Properly defined, they are more of an intellectual movement than a mass movement. More broadly defined, though, a non-intellectual form of neoconservatism is what animates much of the right-wing grassroots — think of your average Fox News viewer, I guess.
I would say that a good portion of the “business anti-taxers” will stay home in November. As a parallel, at an election-night party at the Heritage Foundation in 1992, a Heritage staffer showed up with a bust of Bush Sr.’s head on a platter! That’s a true story and it demonstrates the lack of enthusiasm and often outright hostility that “business anti-taxers” felt towards Bush Sr. back then and many have similar feelings towards McCain today.
The “quasi-libertarian mountain rightists” (and the handful of more open libertarians who still linger around the GOP and what’s left of the old conservative movement) are a bit of a wild card. Dr. Paul’s best primary showings were in the mountain west — he tended to poll 15-25% there and even picked up a handful of delegates. The question for the general election is to what extent that base goes to the Libertarian Party and the Barr campaign. Lots of libertarians inside and outside of the Party are unhappy with Barr for his past votes (Iraq, Patriot Act, Defense of Marriage, etc) and aren’t convinced of his supposed change of heart. In fact, at the LP’s nominating convention, it took an unprecedented six votes for Barr to defeat his opponents. It remains to be seen whether he’ll run as a libertarian or just as a Republican who happens to be in the LP these days. But while lots of radical libertarians are skeptical of him, in terms of the “quasi-libertarian right” he’s doing okay at the moment. Zogby’s latest poll shows him at 6% nationally.
Finally, the “racist white/English only” crowd. I assume you mean the anti-illegal immigration folks. You might see a split there depending on how high immigration is on their agenda — most aren’t happy with McCain’s views on the issue and those who rate it as their number one issue may stay home (and a handful may go for the small Constitution Party) but those who, as with the religious right, see “victory over the terrorists” as a cause that trumps everything else will probably stay within the fold.