Thank you very much for your detailed and informative reply.
Well worth reading for everyone.
I had read that Wilder was tolerant or pro-homosexual agenda, but I had not realized to what extent. Definitely not worth emulating or learning from in that regard; just his courageous opposition to Islamic aggression.
I think far too many of us in the conservative world are unaware of how bad things have gotten in Europe. What they call “conservatives” or even “far right” over there might well be considered left-wing liberals or (at best) libertarians in a United States political context.
I don't mean they would be considered liberals just by Freepers, RedStates, TownHallers, and those who frequent other assorted conservative websites. Many of our RINOs and GOP-e people are farther right than what Europeans consider “Far Right.”
We need to take a very hard look at where European secular conservatism has gone once the traditional conservative parties lost their Christian moorings. (Yes, in Europe we do need to say “Christian,” not “Judeo-Christian” — they have a very different history than America with established state churches.) People like Geert Wilders, to their credit, may themselves be lapsed church members who still believe in a moral foundation for society. Wilders is sympathetic to Christianity even though he is not himself a practicing Christians; he's spent significant time in Israel and has great respect for Judaism. However, others in the so-called “Far Right” are much less sympathetic to Christian traditional values. That may be understandable in the case of someone like Marine Le Pen who inherited a secular French conservatism that dates back two centuries, but it is much less acceptable for conservatives in European nations other than France.
I read an article recently talking about how openly pro-gay the British Conservative Party has become. Similar things could be said about the traditional Catholic parties of much of Europe which may be “Christian Democrats” in name but in reality are not Christian in any meaningful sense of the word.
That is the future of the Republican Party if we do not watch out, and take action **RIGHT NOW** to defend our Judeo-Christian base of “social conservative” support for the Republican Party.
The recent uproar over Todd Akin for Senate isn't just because of his stupid “legitimate rape” comments. It is because there are people in the less-conservative wing of the Republican Party who are embarrassed by the official Republican stance against abortion even in cases of rape and incest, saying abortion should be legal only to save the life of the mother. Ronald Reagan found out the hard way in California that a “health of the mother” exception would be abused — there are very good reasons for the official Republican position. We need to keep that position, and all the rest of the social conservative issues, because compromise will lead to wholesale collapse.
Akin isn't the issue; he made a really dumb comment and could lose what should have been a slam-dunk election as a result. He's only an example, and I know there are people of good will who believe he should step down. What **IS** important is that Republicans maintain social conservative principles. If we lose that foundation, we will become a European-style conservative party, and that is somewhere we do **NOT** want to go.