The Voice Of One Crying Out In Suburbia

The struggle for the soul of the GOP....


Outside of the chaotic melee that is the GOP primary season, there is another battle that I believe is brewing that will impact the Republican party, and American politics in general, for many decades to come.

There are two main factions: the old school GOPers, readers of National Review who are primarily concerned with tax policy and national defense. This camp seems to like Romney for his alleged business savvy, and Rudy because he was tough on crime in NYC and a strong leader after September 11th. This was the camp I used to identify most closely with.

The second camp are the Johnnie-come-lately's, the Evangelical Christian Right, a group far more comfortable with James Dobson than William F. Buckley. For those on this side, opposition to abortion and gay marriage are the driving forces. This camp has recently embraced Mike Huckabee, due mainly to general discomfort with Rudy's multiple divorces and Romney's flip-flopping on abortion as well as his mormonism. This is where I find myself these days. The Christian Right brings the voters and the enthusiasm, the old school brings the money. It has long been an uneasy marriage, and that partnership seems at a breaking point as we approach the first primaries.

The question comes down to this: will Evangelical, Christian conservatives be content to march in lockstep with the GOP when it seems that many in the Republican part are hell-bent to stick their thumbs in the collective eyes of Christian conservatives, smugly assuming that we have nowhere else to go? Will fear of seeing Hillary in the White House, dangling the vague promise of potentially conservative, constructionist judges be enough to keep the slack-jawed yokels in line? The writers on National Review online have made no secret of their general disdain for Mike Huckabee. Rich Lowry has a current editorial titled "Huckacide" , comparing Mike Huckabee to Howard Dean and warning of certain doom if Huckabee is nominated. Lowry brings up Huckabee's Biblical rejection of evolution and snarkily declares that:

Even if there are many people in America who agree with him, his position would play into the image of Republicans as the anti-science party. This would tend to push away independents and upper-income Republicans. In short, Huckabee would take a strength of the GOP and, through overplaying it, make it a weakness.

Even if there are many people who agree with him? Like the millions of Evangelicals who believe what the Bible says? Lowry should stop by the Creation Museum on a Saturday and tell those waiting in line to disperse before someone sees them and thinks ill of the GOP because of their ignorance. Wouldn't want to offend the "upper-income Republicans"! (As if everyone who is upper income only vaguely believes in the Bible, and everyone who rejects evolution lives in a trailer park drinking RC Cola) In other words, Evangelicals are useful if they march dutifully to the polls to pull the lever for the anointed Republican chosen by their betters and keep their mouths shut otherwise. Other NRO writers are equally effusive in their praise for Romney (see Mona Charen) and their warnings about Huckabee (see Ramesh Ponnuru). Jim Geraghty makes the perfectly valid point regarding Huckabee and his supporters: Evangelical conservative Christians are a powerful and influential group within the Republican party. But they’re not enough to get the nomination, much less the presidency.

True enough, but the converse is true. A conservative simply cannot get the nomination or win the general election without Evangelicals. Looks like we might need one another after all...

Ronald Reagan has loomed so large over the Republican party for so many years that it is way overdue for a makeover. We can't keep searching for the next Reagan clone in a world that has changed so dramatically. The Gipper is gone, and so is the Soviet Union. The Republicans have held power in Congress and the White House, and thus far have proven to be little more trustworthy than Democrats when it comes to fiscal responsibility. Peggy Noonan asks if Reagan would survive in the new GOP, and it is a valid question. But it is an equally valid question to ask if Christian conservatives are obligated to continue to follow the GOP if it proceeds with nominating a candidate that we find unacceptable.

I understand the need in a democracy to form coalitions, especially in a two-party system with winner-takes-all elections. But a coalition does not mean that one faction makes all the decisions and the other faction carries the load. If the old school doesn't figure that out, they will learn to their chagrin that a party made up of only "upper-class Republicans" cannot win elections.