Phony Conservatives

While the 2008 presidential race continues at its death march pace, a song came to mind thanks to a recent meeting by several prominent leaders of the religious right (only a few of whom are both still above ground AND still relevant). “You can’t always get what you want, but . . . sometimes . . . you get what you need.” It seems that none of the “values voter” conservatives, the traditional Republican base of support since about 1980, seems even remotely satisfied with anyone in the field, unless they’re on a candidate’s payroll. They want Ronald Reagan or Barry Goldwater and seem unwilling to accept that neither will make an appearance at the ’08 convention in St. Paul.

Their frustrations were brought out at a meeting in late September where they decided to consider supporting a third party candidate should the GOP nominate someone who is not as solidly, unrelentingly, and obsessively opposed to abortion (and gay marriage, and stem cell research) as they are. The short list of those candidates includes current frontrunner Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, and (for some) Mitt Romney. Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family was there, so was Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. Most notably, former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer joined in by phone, apparently ready to jump from the ship he couldn’t get on.

To be sure, none of the major candidates (Rudy, Freddy, and Romney) has an unblemished record of social conservatism. Mayor Giuliani openly describes himself as moderate or even liberal on abortion and gay marriage while having a shaky marital history himself. Senator Thompson lobbied for abortion groups in his past and opposed a federal marriage amendment, while social conservatives have attacked Governor Romney as “just another flip-flopper from Massachusetts” for stances he took before, during, and after his term in the Commonwealth. Still, early pollsters seem willing to defy the will of the socially conservative base and have placed these three at the head of the pack along with John McCain, who has also drawn the wrath of Dobson.

The religious right’s opposition to these candidates begs the question of which candidates they WOULD support for the nomination. There are a handful of socially conservative candidates who would suit the religious right’s demands for single-issue campaigns, if they had even a snowball’s chance in hell of gaining delegates to the convention. Those assembled in Salt Lake City acknowledged this passively in their opposition to pro-choice candidates while failing to name a preference of their own. Their apparent willingness to abandon the party they brought to and kept in power for the better part of 30 years is perhaps the final break between themselves and the rest of the party.

While the religious right is supposed to be the GOP’s most loyal voting block, I personally would like to know this from the likes of James Dobson and Pat Robertson: what have you done for us lately? Since re-electing a president they now no longer support, things started getting tough for elected Republicans in 2005. After those in Washington bent over backwards (sorry, bad choice of words?) to accommodate the religious rights demands- another federal marriage amendment, another limp-wristed anti-abortion resolution, another divisive stem cell research ban- how were Republicans repaid when it was time to go to the polls? The religious right stayed home (or worse, voted for conservative Democrats) and put Nancy Pelosi in the Speaker’s chair.

The recent conference exposes this group for what they really are: phony conservatives. They are in fact no better than the liberals they despise in their opposition to even rudimentary conservative principles. To borrow a party label from Europe, those assembled in Salt Lake City recently are not Republicans but mere Christian Democrats, willing to expand the federal government in size, scope, and authority and impose their will on the majority. In this sense, they are no different from the liberals they despise.

While Americans are themselves the most religious people in the western democratic world, they are content to keep their religious and secular lives separate and to not impose their beliefs on their neighbors. What these phony conservatives want is one of them, who will betray conservatism itself to suit their narrow social objectives. What they’ll get in supporting a third party is a liberal Democrat who will do exactly what they don’t want for four or even eight years. What they really need is a conservative- a small government, low tax, strong national defense conservative- who can lead our country and our party in to the future.