Replies

>>>>I’m a Roman Catholic in a sea of Protestants and yet I know no one who ascribes to any of the beliefs that you cited. Are you sure that this is reality or merely a biased assumption?<<<<<<

Yes, I’m sure this is reality because I’ve had this discussion several times right here on FR. It’s a place where some folks really let their hair down.

And for the 50th time, just to be clear, I am not an atheist or opposed to Christianity or the Bible or any religious expression whatsoever ***except when those expressions are presented as the precursors to the Republican Party or most particularly to conservatism***.

I don’t understand why this is so difficult to understand: the GOP and conservative politics are not (or, *should* not be) adjuncts to any sect or religious belief at all.

At the risk of beating a dead horse, I think this debate is huge for the conservative movement (for now represented by the Republican party). First, I believe your viewpoint is shared by a substantive segment of Republican voters (who KP, Frum, et. al. are partly speaking for). I also believe that we Cons have to resolve this debate and appreciate each other’s key issue(s). SoCon key issue is abortion; DefCon is national security; and everyone is for being a FiCon (where Pres. Bush mostly lost us). At post 84, Scory has a great post setting this backdrop (excerpted):

“Republicans can rally around a handful of clear principles. Not every Republican will support every principle with equal fervor and may even be somewhat opposed to one or two.

It seems to me that the GOP is:

1. For fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets.
2. For a strong national defense and law and order.
3. For reining in government and shrinking both its size and influence.
4. For border security and an ordered immigration policy.
5 Pro-life and pro traditional values.

This list is certainly not a final word on the matter.

It also seems to me that if a person violently disagrees with any of these then that person needs to determine whether he or she belongs in the GOP. Parties have to stand for something. The GOP loses when it tries to compromise for the sake of trying to appeal to people that would never vote for a Republican to begin with because they don’t believe in what the party holds as core principles.”

I’m going to assume that abortion is a sticking point with many who object to the “religious” wing “diverting the GOP in the direction of personal religious and sectarian beliefs.” If so, my theory is we won’t get any (or enough) of the Dems/Independents by giving in on abortion; they’ll just continue to prefer the more idealogically pure Democratic Socialists to a watered-down version. Also, here’s an excerpt of what the Great Communicator Reagan on Abortion had to say about abortion:

Abraham Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free land when some men could decide that others were not fit to be free and should therefore be slaves. Likewise, we cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide. My Administration is dedicated to the preservation of America as a free land, and there is no cause more important for preserving that freedom than affirming the transcendent right to life of all human beings, the right without which no other rights have any meaning.