Letters to the Editor
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Guiliani Leads Opinion Polls
These christianists are included in these polls, and they do not choose Giuliani, yet Guiliani still leads. So Rudy can go into this meeting arrogantly, and the pitiful christianists have no valid response.
This does not look good for rational Americans. Apparently, Rudy can get the nomination and contend for the presidency even without the "Christian" kooks.
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Aint gonna happen...
Finding a major news outlet backer I mean. For years, fiscal conservatives have "tolerated" social conservatives because they brought in the votes. It's a sure bet that if they don't need them anymore (and if Guilliani is the front runner, it looks like they don't) they aren't giving them one red cent. Sorry kids, they really don't like you after all. You were just the Jerry Lewis to their Dean Martin. A mealticket. Guess who got more respect when that partnership ended ("Jerry's Kids" aside)? Does anyone really believe you can have an unregulated market and a "culture war" going at the same time?
What I don't get is, for years the religious right have claimed that they represent the majority of christians and, by default as christianity is the largest religion in the country, the majority of Americans. So why are they having such a hard time getting their issues front and center? It must be so disheartening to discover you don't speak for as many of your fellow saved bretheren as you thought you did. Perhaps that's why their reluctant to take the plunge. Finding out you were wearing no clothes after everyone else did must really hurt. I'll be crying my beer for them (Oh, wait, I don't drink. Boy they just can't catch a break, can they?!).
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believe it when I see it
These religioso charlatans are just trying to wring some promises out of Rudy, which he has already/will again come across with, so they can pronounce him 'redeemed' or whatever the hell. Like appointing more Alitos and Scalias, as he said yesterday. These creeps are like dogs chasing a car (not to offend any dogs out there) and if they ever catch it -- "it" being their various and supposed wishes for a theocracy -- they couldn't keep bleeding the hicks for cash, and some of them might have to get real jobs. If they think Rudy can win, they'll make sure their sheep trundle into the church vans next November. This might even help Giuliani among people who should know better, too many of whom apparently think he's a 'different' kind of Republican.
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I Don't Think the Religious Right Will Play Such a Large Part For a While
Jerry Falwell was a huge asset to them. On camera he appeared affable. He did not bring down the fire and brimstone when he appeared on cable news shows. CNN fell in love with Falwell. They made him. They were enthralled with this pleasant-looking man who smiled, had a good speaking voice and had his talking points lined up in a folksy row. "Hey, he doesn't look and sound like your average evangelical preacher. And he talks real good. He claims he represents millions of Americans. Let's put him on speed dial for whenever we want a conservative southern evangelical to take up some of our lonnnng 24 hours of airtime. He makes a great spokesperson and he drives non-evangelicals crazy. Ya gotta love him!"
But Falwell is dead and Dobson, Randall Terry and others just don't strike the same chord. Smarmy Ralph Reed has been publicly exposed as a con man. Pat Robertson has called for the assassination of foreign leaders while he supports the thieving, thuggish Mobuto regime for mercenary reasons.
I think the influence of the religious right will wane for a bit. They're always complaining, they're never satisfied, they always want more. Sure, they pour money into conservative causes but pols are getting tired of them and want a break. John McCain couldn't have picked a worse time to veer willdly off course and into the arms of the fundies.
But they won't go away. They'll wax and wane for as long as there is a USA.
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Yeah, Mitt is Our Man
Looks like poor Rudi can't put his foot in his mouth that far. The fundies have a real taste for power now, and it's gonna be hard to let go. They've been winning for a long time and just had their first president fully in their pocket.(Reagan turned out to be a wily old fox.)
Even with the H-Woman as a candidate, they know they have problems this time. The war is scarin' off the loose sheep. They're even losing some of their own young-folks, and not every preacher got the dogma like the old days.
It could be time to pick one of our own, Mike ain't a bad guy, but he looks like such a loser--he can't pick up any of the big bucks, he's a little, well, old fashioned, even for us. It may be time to make peace with the Mormons fellas.
Think of it this way: they believe in Jesus; they believe in redemption; the religion started right here in the US of A, and Mitt really, really wants to win. He may even practice the religion, which is nice, and means we can show 'em we ain't prejudiced. A third party is a lot of work and you saw what it did to the dopey Dems. If the miserable curs knew what loyalty was we wouldn't have gotten half as far as we have.
Didn't Mitt's dad make cars and wasn't he a Republican governor? He's got the bucks. Massachusetts is a hell of a place for a genuine family man, but he held his own. Not like Rudi who probably was an infidel before he started to represent 'em. And as far as anybody knows his closets are clean...
Mitt will know who he owes it too--and that's always a good thing.
Yeah, Mitt is Our Man.
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Defection Is the Smartest Strategy Availabble To Them
Though I think it's unlikely they'll ultimately pull the trigger, a formal defection from the Republican Party wouldn't be an act of desperation or petulance, but the smartest long-term poltiical strategy available to them under the circumstances. Though the leaders of the "values voters" set are a loathsome pack of religious fanatics and unabashed hypocrites, they aren't stupid. They are fully aware that not only does Giuliani have no chance of becoming president, but that the Republicans are about to be on the ass-end of the most stunning electoral repudiation delivered by the American public in a generation. Quite simply, they want to make sure they're the first horde of rats with a clear path off the ship before it disappears under the waves. Sure, it'll be ugly, but at least it will give them a fig leaf with which to conceal the full scope of their political toxicity and impotence when the election is ultimately lost.
If only we were smart enough to learn from their example! Would that Move On and other liberal groups were to convene and threaten a defection from the Democratic Party because of its ongoing refusal to challenge Bush on FISA, rendition, and the rest of his campaign to turn the U.S. Constitution into a roll of toliet paper. That's precisely what it would take to rid the party of its filthy collaborators, and get them to stop sticking their knives in our backs every time an opportunity to make a real difference arises.