Posted on 12/10/2006 12:09:12 PM PST by Luis Gonzalez
First, a quick note to those around the country who read this column each week. I'm still receiving e-mails and letters commenting on my recent column about political agendas creeping into private schools. I greatly appreciate the response.
As I focus on one topic and then another from week to week, I find myself accused now of being a right-wing fanatic, and then a liberal softy who doesn't like Christians. Another frequent criticism is that I focus too much on happenings in Florida.
Before this week's short and pointed message, let me address some of these criticisms. And forgive me, long-time readers, if I repeat myself. Fortunately, our readership has grown much lately, so not everyone has read the spiel.
Although I live in Atlanta, this column's flagship newspaper is the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville. My work takes me all over -- Florida, Washington, D.C., and more. Being in the public-opinion research and political information business makes it necessary to travel light and cover a lot of ground.
This column is syndicated by Creators Syndicate, the nation's largest independent news syndicate. Wherever you might find this piece, on a website or in your hometown newspaper, please know that it's not written to promote any one political philosophy or to address readers in any one part of the nation.
What the column is dedicated to is analyzing political and social trends, usually based on public-opinion surveys or on an evaluation of often-complicated political or other news.
Just like anybody else, I'm not always correct in my judgments. And probably more than most people, I have enough flaws to require the asking of ongoing forgiveness from the Almighty in whom I believe.
So there it is. My semiannual disclaimer.
Why now? Because this week I have to deliver follow-up news to last week's column. In it, I suggested that the September 5 Republican primary in Florida might turn out to be a historic electoral test for any organized religious, conservative political machine that might exist, either in Florida or anywhere else.
We have an answer. Following the election blowout of Judge Roy "Ten Commandments" Moore in Alabama and the defeat of former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed in Georgia comes Tuesday's overwhelming victory by Florida's moderate Republican Attorney General Charlie Crist. By a two-to-one margin, he defeated the more socially conservative state Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher and moved one step closer to succeeding Jeb Bush as governor.
This tells me that the once-mighty "organized" Christian-conservative voting bloc is no longer intact.
For those preparing to condemn me to hell, please note that the key word in the above statement is "organized."
Doubtless, there will still be plenty of folks going to the polls this fall and beyond who hold strong, sincere Christian beliefs. And they will vote wholly or partially based on those beliefs.
Even so, the Crist-Gallagher contest stands as a prominent example of changes happening even now, in Florida and throughout the so-called Bible Belt.
Weeks prior to Election Day, Crist was so confident of his impending victory that he declared support for civil unions for gay couples in Florida.
Whatever one's moral position on this touchy topic, the salient point here is that as short as a few years ago, such a declaration by a candidate in a Republican primary would have been a kiss of death. But ever since Congress, in 2005, rushed to pass through a law to keep alive brain-damaged Terri Schiavo in defiance of Florida and federal courts, the public's mood on core social issues has shifted.
Indeed, a spokesperson for Schiavo's family during her final days alive was beaten soundly in a Florida state Senate race on Tuesday.
This trend can be seen in public survey after survey across the nation over the past months.
This isn't to say social conservatives and the organizations through which they speak and act -- like the Christian Coalition -- won't again rise to prominence. But for now, Republican voters across America are tending toward moderation on social issues. They are instead showing more concern for things like immigration, energy costs, security and their own financial futures.
So here's a memo to prospective Republican candidates for president in 2008: If you're looking for an army of organized evangelicals to carry you to the White House, you'd better put on your X-ray glasses. Right now, they're hard to see.
Polls say 70 percent of Americans favor medical marijuana.... but Bushies insist we persecute the sick, dying, and lame.
The same government that makes a profit off of alchohol and tobacco.
Go figure.
Top notch hyperbole there.
Mr. Gonzales is wrong . The block of voters that came across
for the republicans was the christian right.
The big social issues such as a ban on gay marriage went strongly social conservative.
Recent polling on favorability shows congress even
lower than before the election!
I didn't write the article.
Speaking of lame ....
Maybe Republicans and Democrats can start to look in the mirror and see each other. Well, conservatives don't even have a mirror these days.
In my opinion, this election saw a lot of Christian conservatives staying home because of Mark Foley. They didn't vote for Democrats. They just stayed home. With a turnout hovering between 40% and 50% in election after election, mobilizing the base becomes very important. The Democrats mobilized theirs; and because of the demoralizing effect of the Foley scandal, we were unable to mobilize ours.
As far as I'm concerned, the attempt to rescue Terry Schiavo was the GOP's finest hour.
AND taxing the bejeesus out of any form of energy.. which raises the prices of quite literally EVERYTHING.. Government makes/parasites at least as much money as the energy companys do.. but not as profit but a drag on profits of EVERYBODY..
Taxing any form of energy SHOULD BE against the law.. like taxing Milk..
I thought the busies were too liberal and lost the election because of it?
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
So the homophobes put their personal agenda before the country and got what -- people who will push the gay/lesbian agenda like there's no tomorrow.
So much for critical thinking on their part, eh?
NOt meaning any disrespect but the govt. makes serious money from pot. Lawyers, drug rehab programs, reeducation,
probation officers as well as prison guards and cops all making money off pot.
The problem is not that the GOP is against social conservatism, its that over the course of the last 10 or 12 years as we have elected hard core social conservatives, these same people have totally and completely failed to hold by the limited government and spending restriant that the GOP has traditionally stood for. Thus, the electorate is willing to move to the left on the social issues if the GOP would stop being bigger spenders than the democrats ever were.
Were you born this stupid or did come about naturally?
Well Mr. Towrey, then let's just put one party on the ballot with 2 or so running. We don't need party associations if we are all going to be the same. BTW, this is exactly what is happening & not by happenstance. Ole Bubbas mentor at Georgetown (Caroll Quiglley -sp-) called for the 2 parties to become similiar so that no radical changes - you know that would be toward conservatism - would occur at election. One big world of socialism.
We agree. I do not think Mark Foley had anything to with the vote. What social conservatives see is that a lot of Republicans are no different than Democrats except they are supportive of the WOT effort. They have a problem getting hung up on the fact that they think we hate gay people. Not the truth, but it makes them feel better. I don't like what Foley did, but I don't hate him.
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