Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
RELIGIOUS RIGHT'S POLITICAL POWER IN SEVERE DECLINE	Fritzella	10/01/07
"WASHINGTON — Palm Sunday two years ago was a glorious day for Christian conservatives. A president who'd proclaimed Jesus his favorite philosopher was racing back from vacation to sign a bill rushed through a compliant Congress at their bidding — a last-minute gamble to keep alive a severely brain-damaged woman in Florida. That, however, was the peak of the Christian conservatives' political power. Today, their nearly three-decade-long ascendance in the Republican Party is over. Their loyalties and priorities are in flux, the organizations that gave them political muscle are in disarray, the high-profile preachers who led them to influence through the 1980s and 1990s are being replaced by a new generation that's less interested in their agenda and their hold on politics and the 2008 Republican presidential nomination is in doubt. "Less than four years after declarations that the Religious Right had taken over the Republican Party, these social conservatives seem almost powerless to influence its nomination process," said W. James Antle III, an editor at the American Spectator magazine who's written extensively about religious conservatives. "They have the numbers. They have the capability. What they don't have is unity or any institutional leverage." The Religious Right never had absolute power in the Republican Party. It never got the Republican president and Republican Congress to pursue a constitutional amendment banning abortion, for example....."
Clarification/Follow-up by tomder55 on 10/01/07 11:25 pm: I am well aware of Dobson's and some others mistaken view of their importance. However ,the only possible outcome of their threats of a 3rd party run would be the guarantee the election of Evita. I'm sure the Hillary camp is pleased with this turn of events. And of course the NY Slimes made it a big bold headline “Giuliani Inspires Threat of a Third-Party Run.”Althoug I will give them credit for differentiating between “political conservatives” and “voters from evangelical churches”. Dobson and co. don't like Rudy.They think Thompson is not Christian enough. I have no doubt they would find fault in Jesus himself. I suggest that the best Dobson and his ilk can hope for is a candidate like Rudy and perhaps a VP like Mike Huckabee. In the meantime;if they can't unite behind a candidate like Huckabee and use their kingmaker influence in the primaries to get Huckabee nominated ,then perhaps they are not the kingmakers they pretend to be. I also stand by my contention that the moonbat activist base of the Democrats dislike their frontrunner as much as Dobson dislikes Rudy ;especially when they hear she attends prayer meetings with the hated conservatives in the Senate .But like Dobson there is not a damn thing they can do about it. Dobson's bluff is easy to see through. In fact ;I'll throw it right back at you. I think it is more likely that a 3rd pary candidate will emerge from the left. I heard howls of protest when none of the Democrat candidates would commit to a date certain for withdrawal within the 4 year period of their first term in office. Maybe Ralph Nader is ready to throw a monkey wrench into the machine again.
Answered By		Answered On
tomder55		10/01/07
The Religious Right never had absolute power in the Republican Party. That of course is the truth . In reality they have had about the same effect shaping policy in the Republican party as the Kossaks and code pinkos have had with the Democrats . In the end they are just another voting block to consider. Would the Kossaks not vote for Hillary in this general election even though sho polls near the bottom of their preference ? Of course not ! Simularily the so called religious right will hold their nose and vote for whichever Republican gets nominated . Would it be better for them to have Evita in the White House ?

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