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Posted on 12/24/2015 12:25:49 PM PST by Engraved-on-His-hands
Leaders of the Christian right have found their man: Ted Cruz.
In the past two weeks, the Texas senator has wracked up a string of high-profile endorsements from influential evangelical leaders, including Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, National Organization for Marriage president Brian Brown, and Family Leader chief Bob Vander Plaats. According to the National Review, many more are on the way.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
Cruz or lose, here!
Ditto!
“Could evangelicals be GOP kingmakers in 2016?”
No.
They are more interested in whom can recite bible verses better than a televangelist with the best country twang, but they will not show up in a general election for the mostly flaky of reasons.
After GW Bush’s October surprise DUI revelation, I distinctly remember more than a few of those clowns on FR say they could not support him anymore because it conflicted with their morals. Extrapolate that out and you end up with the mess we had in 2000.
Anyone that hitches their wagon to them does so at their own risk.
Strong social conservatives comprise about one-third of the Republican Party. If you alienate them, you might still win the Republican nomination (e.g., McCain and Romney), but you have little or no chance in the general. Those are just the facts that you will have to deal with, like it or not. You may or may not want to “hitch your wagon to them”, but if you run them under the wagon, you might as well pack it in. Those are the facts. Those who want our votes but not our values just never seem to catch on to that.
They always are. Name ~one~ Republican president (from Reagan fwd) who didn't have their blessing.
So at what point do Strong social conservatives = evangelicals by association?
Or is this another example of assuming that every conservative that is a Christian is an “evangelical”, because they most certainly are not.
More than that, more than half of Conservatives (generally more conservative in all respects) now stand outside of the republican party as independents (myself included). So values matter again in the general (twice as much, to a greater degree).
Those who want our votes but not our values just never seem to catch on to that.
Indeed. The primary characteristic necessary in any man is a strong moral character - Without that, no matter what else they may claim, there is nothing.
In a word - no. Trump has a 34/20 lead with Evangelicals as per latest Wapo survey; but besides their large presence in Iowa 57% of likely caucus voters - they don’t have numbers like that elsewhere.
In a word - no. Trump has a 34/20 lead with Evangelicals as per latest Wapo survey; but besides their large presence in Iowa 57% of likely caucus voters - they don’t have numbers like that elsewhere.
They were kingmakers in 2008 and 2012 when they sat on their asses and let the libs elect and re-elect the idiot in chief.we need to vote for our candidate even if he/she wasn't our first choice. Mine was Walker in this election, but I will vote for whomever the Pubbies nominate....I sure as hell don't want Clinton or Sanders anywhere near the White House.
Evangelicals are varied in motivations. Single issue pro-lifers are the least likely to vote and the biggest waste of energy...unless someone has a new way to get them to vote.
Many Evangelicals are pro-Israel as their #1 issue. They vote.
Many Evangelicals sit beside illegals on Sunday morning. They live next door to illegals. Their kids play together. Blanket Anti-illegal rhetoric and positions drive them away from voting. And, or course, a big-government anti-capitalist approach to illegals is not really conservative.
Evangelicals feel under attack. Political correctness does not allow them to practice what they preach. It requires them to be hypocrites. Can that be harnessed to actually get them out to vote?
Many Blacks and Hispanics are Evangelicals. Getting their votes is key to winning in November.
Then you'll sure as hell get something just like them. If the moral character of the person you endorse doesn't matter, then moral character will become a non-issue (as it already has - look at Romney and McCain, and now Trump) - None of these will give you anything better than the democrats.
The one thing you and I agree upon in the RF is adherence to the Judeo-Christian ethic - For me that will surely inform my positive vote and that which it endorses. In fact, that is my first concern.
Whoa, wait a second....there is nothing inherently evil about any of them....we are discussing their political positions....I have no idea about how any of them stand with God.....WAY above my pay grade to determine that.
They are all qualified, by law, to be president. My concern is how their basic opinions concerning that office coincide with mine. Neither Democrat candidate comes anywhere close, but EVERY Republican at least conforms to some of my concerns. I would much rather vote for someone who agrees with 50-60% of my viewpoints than one who agrees with none. The past few elections have been that way but I voted for the Pubbie as much to put him in office as to keep the Democrat out.
If you can, in good conscience, tell me that Romney would not have been 99.5% better that Obama.....then you are hopelessly deluded.
Well, if you are only 1/3 of the GOP electorate (probably not that much), you can defeat any Republican by withholding your votes, but you cannot (on your own) elect a dog catcher.
So, where do you get off making demands that a candidate has to “accept your values”?
You can’t win on your own because you are (intensely) unpopular. Any candidate who gets too close to you gets destroyed.
I don’t understand what you expect of those conservatives who don’t believe as you do.
This demand by 1/3 of the base to rule or ruin is atrocious.
Oh, get off your Holier Than Thou soapbox. They had no one to vote for so they didn't, being moral people and all. That is what led to the current renaissance. Try think it through yeah.
If you don’t want our votes, that’s OK. We can live with that. But don’t think that you have a right to demand our votes when you don’t stand for our values.
Not if the Republican Party can prevent it.
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