Are Social Conservatives the 'African American Voting Bloc' of the GOP Party? (re:Dobson Comments)

FR Editorial ^ | May 6, 2003 | Reaction to James Dobsons comments

[ewing]

Someone responded to James Dobson's statement that social conservatives may stay home in response to the percieved lack of support that Sen. Santorum recieved by the GOP and compared the social conservative wing of the GOP to the Black vote in the Democratic Party.

1. The party cannot win nationally without their turnout.

2. They vote solidly for Bush/Cheney or who the conservaticve nominee will be

3. For the most part their issues are delayed or back burnered until action must be taken (partial birth abortion, stem cell reaseach, homosexual issues)

Is this accurate, and what could the leadership do to change this..or is backing Santorum further enough?

[ewing]

These were really surprising comments from Dobson to my ears..

[Mr. Bird]

I think Dobson is overstating his clout. "Social" conservatives tend to be "Fiscal" conservatives as well. Dobson sees his minions through a very narrow lens. He also must think they are retarded.

[Mr. Bird]

But back to your question: why would the national apparatus wish to change its relationship with Dobson's friends if they are indeed the equivalent to the black vote? Talk about being reliable.

They won't stay home, except maybe those on the fringes.

[ewing]

I think Dobson has more political clout than most think, but I can't guage if this is a widely held viewpoint (Santorum's tepid support, and is something more needed)

[JohnGalt]

He does this every couple years (1998 and 1995).

The Christian Right is largely a media creation anyway who largely stayed at home in the 2000 election, at least according to Karl Rove.

[ewing]

But you know the liberal media is going to be beating down Dobsons' door after they get a load of his comments.

This is the kind of thing they salivate over..

[Austin Willard Wright]

Small point but is it black or African-American? Folks who try to use both terms drive me up the wall. Most of them would never dream of saying "European-Americans." Black is beautiful!

[The Old Hoosier]

It is accurate. However, I would hope that unlike the black voters who go Dem every time only to get kicked in the balls for their support, we will withhold support or even vote for conservative Dems if we feel slighted.

[ewing]

Im just not a fan of alliteration, 'Black Vote Bloc'..

[ewing]

Good point and Dobson will probably get some kind of concession out of this comment. <

[JohnGalt]

I disagree. I think there is a myth in American politics that Conservative Christians are anything but politically unreliable for Republicans. Liberal humanists want to believe that Creationist Christians set the GOP agenda, and the GOP establishment would rather blame 'libertarians' than challenge the reliablity of so called Christian-cosnervatives, so it works nicely as a story.


http://www.modbee.com/life/faithvalues/story/6204865p-7154445c.html

"The president's top political adviser, Karl Rove, has concluded that as many as 4 million Christian conservatives who probably would have voted for Bush instead stayed home in the 2000 election. Rove declared a year ago that "we have to spend a lot of time and energy" drawing them back into politics"

[jimkress]

A "social Conservative" is a Liberal in who doesn't have the courage to admit it.

A Liberal is like a barrel of garbage and a Conservative is like a barrel of fine wine. If you take a cup of the wine and put it in the garbage, it's still garbage. If you take a cup of garbage and put it in the wine, the barrel of wine is now garbage.

Any person who claims they are part Conservative and part Liberal are all garbage.

[headsonpikes]

In the spirit of Bill Bennett, 5 will get you 10 it's a fund-raising initiative by Dobson.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Perhaps. If whites were the subject, however, I doubt that anyone would use European-American to correct the problem.

[ewing]

Touche.

[colorado tanker]

These were really surprising comments from Dobson to my ears.

Agreed. It seems Dobson has been very frustrated with the political process for a few years. I don't blame him; it is frustrating. The pubbie party has been pro-life for more than 20 years and we still don't have Roe overturned.

I don't think Dobson appreciates the enormity of the task. The sexual revolution, social emancipation and secularism are powerful trends that have been running for a long time. Reversing deeply rooted trends is hard and takes time.

[Wphile]

Well, Dobson can sit it out and not support the Republicans and then we will have complete democrat control. Yeah, sounds like a brillant plan to me.

And what's he hollering about anyway? The Rick Santorum thing? Sheesh...it seems to me it's become a nonissue so why continue rehashing it.

The media is never going to get it right, i.e., that Santorum's point was about the so-called right to privacy (which doesn't exist) and not about homosexuality being the equivalent of bigamy, polygamy, etc. They will never expose the argument that this should be a state legislative issue and not a federal judiciary issue. All they will do is continue to parrot the line that Santorum's believes homosexuality and beastialty are one and the same.

Sometimes you have to choose your battles, and I say this isn't one of them.

[steve-b]

Really, the best deal social conservatives can -- or should -- get is that the government will not actively undermine their efforts at moral suasion. The Republicans can reasonably give them that without alienating their fiscal-conservative wing. The Democrats, if given the power to do so, will actively assault the social institutions they treasure. Even among the serious third parties (Libertarians and Greens), the choice is either benign neglect or active opposition. attempts to raise a statescraft-as-soulcraft social-right party have been pitiful failures even by third-party standards (look at how Pat Buchanan melted down even with the advantages of name recognition and a large pre-built third party).

[ewing]

But the Supreme Court is changing in a few years.

[ewing]

The issue is a loser to keep bringing back up and inserting it back into the news cycle..