Iowa Radio Host: Religious Freedom Top Conservative Presidential Issue

Breitbart's Big Government ^ | April 27, 2015 | Robert Wilde

[2ndDivisionVet]

Nationally syndicated radio host and columnist for the Washington Times, Steve Deace, explained that there are three specific issues animating the 2016 Republican presidential contest.

“If you are weak on these, don’t even show up,” Deace cautioned conservative Republican presidential aspirants. “This is sort of the triumvirate of issues. That is amnesty, that is religious freedom, and the other is Common Core. If you are soft on these issues, or have been in the past, you’re done.”

The author of Rules for Patriots: How Conservatives Can Win Again, told Breitbart senior writer and guest host of Breitbart News Sunday airing on Sirius XM Patriot radio channel 125, Matthew Boyle, that religious freedom is going to be a major vetting tool.

“The first amendment has been taken for granted by both parties until now. It is a bigger issue this time now for evangelicals than even the life issue is,” Deace insisted. “If you don’t have the freedom to live out your faith in public as an American citizen under the Bill of Rights, your opinion on other matters is actually irrelevant.”

Voted one of the top 100 talk-show hosts in America, according to Talkers Magazine, Deace explained that the left’s goal is to “marginalize the Republican base, drive them underground so that they can’t take a stand on other issues of a conservative magnitude.” Deace thinks that most Republican candidates don’t fully recognize this strategy, with the exception of Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, and Texas senator Ted Cruz.

“If you look at how Cruz has stood out on the religious freedom issue and how quickly he has come here and organized Iowa, if the caucuses were held today, he would win....

[SoConPubbie]

From the article:

“If you look at how Cruz has stood out on the religious freedom issue and how quickly he has come here and organized Iowa, if the caucuses were held today, he would win...."

[BlackElk]

2ndDivisionVet: I am just responding to the posted article. Nothing herein is aimed personally at you.

If Ted Cruz wins Iowa convincingly, that will change the dynamics of this nomination contest. He is a truly talented public figure. I still tend to favor Scott Walker based upon his steel backbone and success in executive office. I do very much wish that people like the Iowa talk show host would refrain from laying down hard and fast litmus tests unnecessarily. I say this while admitting that my own litmus tests are in place and are traditional: the babies, marriage, guns, firm foreign and military policy and all constitutional civil liberties including freedom of religion.

Let us not throw thunderbolts at candidates with whom we may disagree and who have a reasonable chance at being on the ticket for POTUS or VPOTUS. No one candidate is perfect. It is a fallen world. I know I do not want any Democrat elected POTUS in 2016. This is an amazingly better field than in 2012. I did not vote for Romney in 2012 because he was nothing more than Obozo in white face.

I hope not to be seeing Jeb nominated in 2016 but even Jeb is far better than Romney. We ought not to be dissing Rubio because we may well find him on the ticket. He is not half the ogre he is made out to be just because of a serious mistake in joining the Gang of Eight on the immigration bill. Like Cruz and Walker and Carson and others, he has a wonderful and compelling "back story" to tell as to how he got to be where he is.

We can as a group decide that a SMALL group of candidates are simply unacceptable but we have to come to a consensus early on as to a nominee for POTUS. If that is not my candidate, fine so long as the candidate is a conservative consensus candidate. I would not post here if I did not respect my fellow conservatives. Perhaps we can skip the vitriol however and not write off candidates altogether based on repented past errors. If God forgives sins, we can forgive repented errors.

I despised Ron Paul but I shall listen to Rand Paul who seems quite different from his father despite some similarities.

Let us do everything we can to keep the conservative movement united for this election. Insulting each others' candidates as well as insulting each other should be off limits through the end of 2016. Pray for God's guidance and assistance in our efforts in election 2016.