[Arizona Carolyn]

What is more disconcerting about our party is in an article in our paper this morning (from a WaPO editorial) which bears out the poll Neal Boortz quoted, that the libertarian arm of the GOP is growing and at the same time becoming disenchanted with the conservative wing of the party... they also feel they are larger and don't have to bend to the conservatives any longer. It went on to point out the GOP has been virtually eliminated in many Northern states and is fast losing ground in the West and parts of the South.

[Wallace T.]

The Christian Right made several crucial mistakes in the 1980s and 1990s for which they have paid. The most fundamental error was to assume that the best way to correct the societal ills caused by liberalism was by putting "good people" into positions of power and passing legislation and Constitutional amendments, such as the Human Life Amendment to correct permissive and anti-family legislation and court decisions. Except for a few places like Colorado Springs and some suburbs of Phoenix, Denver, and Los Angeles/San Diego, the Republican base in the Western states is primarily not evangelical. Barry Goldwater, a nominal Episcopalian, not Jesse Helms, a devout Baptist, is the prototype of a Western Republican. (I'm not counting the RINO types in Washington, Oregon, and Northern California.) Wyoming, one of the most Republican of all states, has one of the lowest percentage of churchgoers in the country.

When the Christian Right did step outside of the realm of social issues, it often stumbled, much as the Prohibitionists did in the early 20th Century, when they supported big government measures like the establishment of a central bank or railroad regulation in exchange for the Progressives' support of Prohibition. In like manner, the Christian Right endorsed President Bush's "faith based" social programs, even though they represented an additional expansion of Federal power. Several, including the recently fired director of the Christian Coalition, attempted an outreach to the environmentalists, even though such people are anathema to the mineral, lumber, farming, and ranching interests.

An appeal to the principles of the Sagebrush Rebellion in the 1970s may help the GOP regain ground in the West.