Pity the poor national Republicans. Sometimes it seem the only thing they have going for them of late (electorally speaking) is that they all run against Democrats – although with the 50-state strategy in play, even that’s less of a leg up than it used to be. The poor souls have realized at some level that appearing captive to evangelical theocrats may not be such a good thing in regards to maintaining the White House. In the past, the strength of the odd synergy between the theocrat right, the neocon right and the laissez-faire right has consisted of the theocrats rallying their armies of voters while the neocons and l-f wings use their considerable skill in spin and messaging to reassure average folk that the theocrats’ values are simply their values. That all this stuff about a lurking neo-fascism is all liberal anti-Christian scare talk.
And so the spin is always about the family. And the “freedom” to worship. They successfully cram all their anti-Constitutional policies into thes comfortable, warm, and oh-so-vague blankets and the middle-of-the-road, none-too-checked-in “swing” crowd snuggle in under them all cozied up.
But things are changing…. (more below the fold)
First with the Supreme Court decision on intact-extraction-and-dilation abortion, which scraps all precedent by giving federal and state governments carte blanche to completely outlaw a medical procedure if it conflicts with the legislative majority’s religious dogma. And the theocrats are probably falling all over themselves to ban abortion by systematically outlawing all its individual methods.
What this all means is that abortion will be front and center in the elections next year – and most of that swing voter set remain solidly pro-choice. Having this argument will inevitably cause more of them to pay extra attention.
But msnbc may have blown the lid open even further when, during last week’s first GOP presidential debate, the following happened:
From NBC’s Carrie Dann and Mark Murray
We just replayed the tape to answer the question some of you asked: Which candidates raised their hands when Chris Matthews asked them if they don’t believe in evolution?
Three did: Brownback, Huckabee, and Tancredo.
That’s right – a third of the Republican candidates for president announced, without hesitation, their rejection of any science that may conflict with their absolutist, take-no-prisoners, dark ages dogma. Bear in mind, we’re supposed to be long past this, generally speaking. Gone are the days where the Catholic Church would imprison the likes of Galileo for… well… for being a scientist and practicing his discipline honestly. In fact, the Church has apologized for that treatment and now easily accepts that modern cosmology and biology (if you’re the theistic type) can simply serve as windows into the mechanisms of creation. And it has, despite arguments on the fringe to the contrary, been a surprisingly easy fit.
But as we all know, there has been a resurgence of those who practice selective literalism when reading their holy scripture. The committed culture warriors who are looking for a political jihad either because their dominion theology/radical “endtimes” doctrine calls for it, or they’re simply fueling their enthusiasm for their faith with a political movement instead of the tried-and-true revival meetings. These folks are so powerful in the GOP now that they can field three candidates for President.
That would be good news enough for Dems. It shows that the theocrats are not content to be camouflaged by the Republican intelligentsia anymore, which will make the pitch to the swing voters that much more problematic. Still, if you give people just a few weeks, they’ll forget anything – especially if we’re talking about something this early when no one but the hardcore junkies are paying attention anyway.
Fortunately, it seems the theocrats may not let us forget. You see, they were actively pissed off that only three candidates raised their hands. Mitt Romney has particularly peeved them. From Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network:
I have now asked the Romney campaign specifically if he believes in Darwin’s theory of Evolution or does he take the Creationist view? The answer above suggests that he may believe in both. I’m not saying he does. I’m just saying I’m a tad bit confused by the answer.
Here’s the key point. The majority of Born Again Evangelicals take the Creationist viewpoint. Some Evangelicals already have concerns about Romney’s Mormon faith. He needs support from Evangelicals to win. That’s why this issue is an important one that needs to be cleared up. I don’t think this is an issue that Romney can avoid.
Ever since the Scopes Monkey Trial, Evolution has been the litmus issue on whether or not you’re rational about your religion, or you’re a pitchfork waving, our-way-or-a-jail-cell, anti-science dark-ager. A Galileo-era throwback. As a question of public policy, it presses primal buttons in people and is looked at by many as the line of demarkation between scary zealots and the most expansive possible definition of “mainstream.”
If this retro-religious pressure on and from the GOP is maintained – and covered by the media (a big “if” indeed) – and the election really does come down to an election between the anti-choice, creationist, crusader crowd vs everyone else, then this game is already done.