I’ve said that before as well. Balance is needed. I posted up further on the thread, actually.
The biggest problem here is that the Christian Right keeps forgetting that they’re NOT the only voters out there. They are a great help to the party, and we can’t win without them, true. The problem is that they (in large part) have a rather bad image among the far-greater-in-size mass of people out there who ALSO have votes and use them on occasion.Not everyone out there has a high opinion of Falwell, Robertson, Dobson. ( I’d take Graham as an exception, I don’t know of many who think ill of him). There’s a REASON that the spoof character the Church Lady became popular on SNL.. because the humor had a bit of the truth in it. Far too many “Christians” out there think that THEIR particular way is the ONLY way. Christ is the ONLY way, but the way we each interpret His words is going to vary considerably. I’m not saying we have to tolerate the more extreme examples, but I think there are far too many who are willing here to consign those who worship differently to the eternal flames of damnation.
For whatever reason, Fred, who is largely acceptable to most on the right, also has considerable appeal to the non-religious-right masses. Here on FR, we’re almost an echo-chamber, not as bad as the one the Left lives in, but sometimes almost as short-sighted in our quest for ideological purity. We need to nominate someone who agrees with us as much as possible, on as many issues as possible,without looking like a kook or a fanatic to the average, everyday folks out there.We need the Christian Right, but we also need the Christian Moderate, the economic conservatives, etc. The people that may not be as committed of Christians as we like, or as fervently in support of FairTax or Social Security Reform, or as vehemently opposed to gun control, or whatever our individual hobby-horses are. FR is NOT representative of the American public at large, because we’re a self-selected group of internet-using, highly involved, conservatives. Tell me where that makes up a majority of the US? We need a majority, or at least a plurality to get someone acceptable to us elected President. I’m not saying we have to go wobbly, but if we straitjacket our choice to 100% purity, we’re TOAST. And rather burnt toast at that. The stakes are too high this time for us to become badly-cooked breakfast food.