Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Recognizing the writing on the walls some Conservatives are now slowly exploring the idea of cutting themselves loose from the Religious Right. Evangelical heads to explode in 3..2..1

Courtesy of the Daily Caller:

It’s time for a secular right to emerge in a visible way like never before, in the name of both tolerance and practicality. In seeking tolerance, the GOP should support openly secular candidates and remove religious litmus tests. It should embrace our founding creed, e pluribus unum, since we are indeed a nation of many philosophies converging in one polity. 

A "secular" right? Is something like that even possible?

Well according to this writer it is:

Embracing secular language and ideals (which coincide with conservative and even religious ideals far more often than the GOP realizes) makes political sense. Religiously unaffiliated Americans are the fastest-growing “religious” bloc, with 20% of Americans now claiming no organized religion, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Electorally, this demographic trend translated to 25% of Mr. Obama’s total votes coming from the religiously unaffiliated. If Mr. Romney had been as concerned about courting the secular middle as he was about courting the religious right, perhaps he’d be preparing his Oval Office drapes. 

To remain relevant in the 21st century, Republican leaders need to stop nominating candidates who engage in tone-deaf outbursts on social issues, a la Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, failed 2012 U.S. Senate candidates who used religiously motivated, clumsy language seemingly excusing some cases of rape. These were bombshells that hurt Republicans among women and seculars; they were easily understood, visceral targets for the left to exploit and distract away from the more arcane debates over fiscal cliffs and debt-to-GDP ratios. To cite “Biblical principles” on a campaign trail as too many Republicans do, is grating on the ears of many moderate, secular voters. It is impossible to predict exactly what a candidate will say or do, yet party elders can do more to support candidates who don’t use the traditional religious buzz words or who choose to focus on civic and cultural endeavors rather than religious work in their home lives.

You know I hate to give ANY credit to a writer who was once  Robert "The Prince of Darkness" Novak assistant, but she makes a good point.

In fact I think the ONLY way for the Republican party moving forward is to break their alliance with the Evangelical community and start talking about conservative policies that don't involve doing way with a woman's right to choose, vilify gay Americans, or try to insert Biblical teaching into the public classroom.

However the question is whether without the religious trappings is the Republican party any more palatable?

I would think that continuing to support big business over workers rights would be almost as problematic for them as embracing the religious right, and the same would be true if they continued to fight regulation, and denied the reality of climate change.

However I think this kind of conversation is probably going to continue within the GOP and I guess we have to wait and see if it takes hold. Or if they simply refuse to accept that their fundamental message is WHY they keep losing and instead focus on doubling down and trying to be more aggressive in getting that message out to the American voter.

I know which direction I'M hoping they take.

13 comments:

  1. I just heard this interview with Rick Warren on the BBC World Report speaking on this very topic. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20649525 At the 3:55 mark he talks of getting "minorities" (Gays, Muslims, etc) to work together and respect each other. He sure has changed his tune in the past week or so from this interview: http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/11/28/1248081/rick-warren-being-gay-is-like-punching-a-guy-in-the-nose-or-consuming-arsenic/
    People like him sure makes me want to be a Christian...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Randall2:51 AM

    How's about they start by taking
    "In God We Trust"
    off of our MONEY?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous3:46 AM

    There are just as many God loving, Jesus following liberal Democrats out there.
    In my life, that's all I know, is God loving, Jesus following, liberal Democrats, including myself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Leland7:01 AM

      There is a MAJOR difference between someone who loves Jesus in the way you claim and the Xtians with their hateful, abusive religious thoughts.

      For one thing, The ultra right Repubes are about as charitable (except as a tax deduction) as a magpie - and I am insulting the magpie!

      Delete
  4. Anonymous3:48 AM

    I think that it's stupid to assume that Romney could have "courted" the religiously unaffiliated. How? The people who are religiously unaffiliated tend to be thinkers and thinkers tend to be liberal. Some of the atheists I know think Obama isn't liberal enough and some might be libertarian but none of them are republicans and none of them would vote for a GOPer. Also, this writer presumes that the hordes of religious vortexes would have come out if he hadn't courted them. He would have had to make up those
    votes somewhere. And there wouldn't be enough from these religiously unaffiliated unless he swept the board with them -- which is laughable, because --AGAIN -- they tend to be smart and smart people tend to be liberals.
    This person is dumb and her analysis is off.

    This is just another stupid conservative trying to find a way to justify Romney's loss without admitting the obvious, that Americans don't like conservative ideas.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:39 AM

      While I agree with your analysis that smart people tend to be more liberal, I wouldn't go as far as to state 'Americans don't like conservative ideas'. Did you mean conservative political candidates?

      So many of the low-information crowd are chained to the prison of their own minds, especially the overt religious ones. But high-information people, IMO, are more in the middle - some believe in a higher power but usually not that of some guy with a white beard judging everyone into one type of hell or another. We still have conservative ideas but not usually identical to that of the GOP.

      In other words, one cannot generalize that liberal people are all the same. An example being, I voted for Obama but still take issue with gay marriage. IOW, I am against gay marriage as I think it is a just WRONG and UNNATURAL. Me bad? No. I still have my own values that are unshakable. No one will convince me otherwise and that, of course, is my right.

      One thing to remember is to be true to yourself. Never let ANY political or so-called authority preach to you WHAT to think or HOW to think. Do not be of group mind. It's called critical thinking and is NEVER taught in school. There's a reason for it.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous3:50 AM

    PS: Although I am a God loving, Jesus following liberal Democrat,I do believe in separation of church and state.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous5:18 AM

    "You dance with the one who brung you." The Republican party is stuck with the evangelicals because they have nowhere else to go. Obama won fewer evangelicals in 2012 than in 2008. To change the party, the evangelicals have to find their own way forward--the secularists can't do it for them. Not gonna happen.

    The "good" news is that 100,000 of us old geezers are dying each month--that's over 4 million fewer old voters in 2016.

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  7. Anonymous5:27 AM

    Now that's what I'm talking about!

    ReplyDelete
  8. BabyRaptor7:22 AM

    Won't do them any good. The people of this country are quickly waking up to the crap the GOP regularly pulls. Nobody but the fundies trust them.

    If they drop the fundies, they'll lose their only base. The GOP suddenly not talking about taking away my autonomy or how I'm less than human for being Bi/not a Christianist isn't going to make me forget their past, and I know I'm not the only one whose memory isn't a black hole.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous8:06 AM

    Who says Romney didn't win....

    Lie of the Year: the Romney campaign's ad on Jeeps made in China

    http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2012/dec/12/lie-year-2012-Romney-Jeeps-China/

    ReplyDelete
  10. I don't think they can do it. If you take away the religion, all that is left of American conservatism is bad economic policy, either leading to feudalism ("right to work" laws) or delusion (cutting taxes for the rich will help everyone). A pox on both their houses.

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  11. Anonymous8:17 PM

    I'm surprised grif is not familiar with the Secular Right. Has he never visited the wonderful blog that goes by that name?

    ReplyDelete

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