Posted on 12/04/2008 5:14:43 PM PST by yongin
The wipe out was caused by the ECONOMY...stupid...
The author could have added a clincher arguement using Prop 8 in CA showing how conservative social issues still win, even after the Repubs have moved left.
Why? I didn't depend on government for crap. All I remember when I came of age and jumped straight from poor black kid into the middle-class, what how stupid it was that the government took one-third of my paycheck.
BTW, Ponnuru mentions the Prop 8 vote in the 8th paragraph of this.
For one, I’m really tired (as many are) of Frum, Parker, and Whitman attacks on social conservative voters. They live in NYC, DC(area), and NJ respectively. They seem to have never worked in the trenches on a campaign nor do they understand the passionate people who tirelessly volunteer on behalf of GOP candidates or causes. Being a writer or a candidate from their circuits of influence is not enough to determine who gets to stay in the GOP. And I appreciate Ponnuru factually driving the point that their assumptions are false and void of facts.
Wrong.
Social conservatism is part and parcel of the Republican base.
What repels some voters, including conservatives, is the evangelical drum beat that accompanies it.
HINT: Non-evangelicals do not want to see religious freedoms infringed upon, they do not support abortion, and they will act to support the Ten Commandments. Non-evangelicals, however, just might not like having someone's bible interpretation shoved up their face any more than they like having someones "sexual orientation" shoved up their face.
Conservatism must retain, well, the conservative part, it cannot become identified solely by the religiosity of only one of it's constituents.
I agree. As a fairly intense bible believer, I believe that when I am talking to you about your SOUL, I should be emphatic that the narrow way is NARROW.
When I am talking to you about your VOTE, then I want to be as broad as possible.
It is weird to me that such common sense seems like the language of betrayal to other Christians some time. Maybe it is because we have been sold out so many times, but I don’t see why that is such a shocker to them. Sometimes I wonder if Christians bother to read the bible anymore to get their philosophy of human nature. It does sort of tell us what to expect.
I thought that after the 2004 election moral and religious values were a deciding factor and all of the ‘Rats subsequently tried to get on the ‘social conservative’ bandwagon.What happened to that deal?
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
100% agree. Good post.
Exactly
Social conservatism had nothing to do with this
Unemployment and inflation rising every month this year to their highest levels in decades, the economy being in its worst recession in decades, the market slumping the worst since the Depression, 90% thinking we’re on the wrong track, Bush having the wost approval ratings in US history the entire year of the election, the GOP being the party of a war that even after the success of the Surge 65% of voters still opposed on election day, an increase in the black/hispanic vote to its highest level ever while the white vote simultaneously shrank to its lowest level ever, the historical diificulties of winning a 3rd term even under good circumstances(see Al Gore), and last but not least being outspent by an unprecedented 300 million dollars ALL had way more to do with what happened that opposition to abortion or gay marriage(which, btw, Obama also strongly opposed).
Flip those #s above to what they were in 2004, or even slightly worse and McCain wins, just like Bush did. When they’re as bad as they were, he really had no shot.
If they’re that bad for Obama and the dems in 2012 will all the pundits talk about a resurgence of social issue when the GOP wins?
They’re the same folks who said the dems had to abandon their social liberalism to win after 2004 and being pro choice hurt them. Guess what? They didn’t have to change anything. They just needed the economy to go in the tank and the war to get really unpopular.
Just like the GOP did after 1976 although substitute the Iran hostage crisis for the war.
I
Well said.
Huckabee was the perfect example of that. A liberal by any definition... but supported by evangelicals because he talked bible to the Republican electorate.
People (The Cocktail Republicans mainly) talk like social conservatives are whackos and on the fringe. Let’s think about arguably the two biggest issues..
(1) Against the killing of innocent babies- Oh yeah that’s just totally irrational. /s
They cut the limbs of babies in the womb or suck their brains out. Yet we’re the crazy ones for objecting to it.
(2)Against having to recognize the marriage of Adam and Steve- well, seems the majority of the citizens of CALIFORNIA are against that.
I think abortion should have been talken about MORE during the election, especially considering Obama’s support of infanticide. Abortion was probably mentioned about twice in the entire campaign by the pres. candidates. The media didn’t touch it.
The GOP ticket had a bad card hand and the party played it poorly. Still considering the deck was stacked against us, McCain (or shall I say Palin) received 59 million votes. That more than what Reagan received. So we’re not dead yet. We do have to realize we aren’t in Kansas anymore. We have utilize new technology fot GOTV efforts, and better relate to surburban independents.
Hey, whaddaya doing keeping 2/3 of the government's money???
/ONLY kidding!
It was overtaken by Feminists.
I could barely pay the rent and eat, to say nothing of buy a new suit, and Sam Rayburn had ranches, cattle, chauffered limousine, a government salary 5 times my own, and he paid less taxes than me.
What a ripoff.
But see, the problem is that the social conservatism (anti-abortion, pro-religious freedom, Ten Commandments, etc.) IS what non-evangelicals think constituted the "shoving our faces in religion". I'm sorry, but evangelicals aren't running around the country at Party meetings and regional conventions sticking a Bible in everybody's faces and demanding they convert. I realise that this is a meme that exists among the non-religious, but it's a false meme - it simply isn't the case. When non-religious types complain about "forcing religion", the pro-life, anti-gay marriage, pro-religious liberty agenda is what they have in mind - it's sort of a code word, if you will. You can't have social conservatism without having non-religious types whining about "people shoving religion down their throats". So, the choice is either hold onto social conservatism, even though it ticks off the non-religious libertarian types, or else give social conservatism the ol' heave-ho, and condemn the GOP to permanent minority status as some sort of Libertarian Party with a few more votes.
I might add that non-religious liberals who complain about the Religious Right have no problem with Catholic Priests promoting Amnesty for illegals or black pastors urging sending increases for public schools. “Forcing religion” is okay as long as you agree with the agenda.
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