‘I have flat-out been ticked at Republicans for the past two years’

September 21, 2006

[tag]Focus on the Family[/tag]’s James Dobson was in Pittsburgh yesterday for a “Stand for the Family Rally” to help rally support for Republicans, most notably, Sen. Rick Santorum (R). Dobson’s message to the religious-right activists in attendance, however, wasn’t exactly inspirational. (thanks to Rege for the tip)

Standing before an enormous American flag in Mellon Arena, conservative evangelical activist [tag]James Dobson[/tag] told thousands of supporters he was deeply disappointed in the nation’s Republican leadership, but that the nation’s future depended on re-electing them.

“I have flat-out been ticked at Republicans for the past two years,” he said, to some applause from a crowd that arena security estimated at around 3,000. […]

He accused the Republican House and Senate of “sitting on their hands” on key conservative social issues. He said they had squandered a growing public sentiment that abortion should be limited or banned.

Dr. Jim can be quite a cheerleader, can’t he? Republicans have done little but annoy him since the religious right delivered for the GOP in ’04 — but activists should schlep to the polls in November anyway. As Dobson put it, “Whether or not the Republicans deserve the power they were given, the alternatives are downright frightening.”

Clearly, Dobson has a little more experience than I do in the area of motivational speaking, but I think I like his message more than the RNC might. “Vote Republican — despite the fact that they’ve been a disappointing letdown that refuses to work our key issues.”

Maybe, if we’re really lucky, Dobson can travel to other key states and share a similar message.

Thanks CB. The Republicans could actually use this in their outreach to Dems and Independents saying, “Look we failed to do all that religious right wing stuff we talk about all the time.” Vote for us. We’re too incompetent to be truly evil.

I agree. Dobson? Bring him on.

  • Nothing like a little DIY, Jesutollah Dobson… why don’t you run yourself on a platform of explicit Christofascism? Everybody wins–you get to spew your hate about those perfidious gays and loose wimmin to a national audience, and the moderate/liberal majority actually gets to have public servants who both believe in governance and have some clue as to how it’s done.

  • Why didn’t he just tell them to vote or they’ll burn in Hell? Sheesh.

    Yet another classic manifestation of the Leader as Addict/Voter as Enabler model of BushBaby rule. No matter how much the leader screws up and infuriates people, they are supposed to “Stand by their man,” because the next guy might be worse.

    One other thought: I notice he borrows Rove’s Chamberlain/Hitler schtick. Pretty sad when a right-wank loony can’t come up with his own lunacy.

  • dajafi beat me to my own comment. If the Relgious Right were truly concerned that the GOP wasn’t doing what they, as a group, wanted the GOP to do, and they truly fear the liberals (BOOGAH BOOGAH BOOGAH, heh heh, Dobson just made a little lap-lemonade), then they should start a NEW POLITICAL PARTY! One organized and represented by people to the right of the right! Stop playing the political song and dance if you honestly think that nobody is going to deliver to you what you make them promise to deliver. Heck, if that’s your way of thinking, you should vote liberal! You may hate their policies but they don’t lie to ya!

    But of course, this is all so-much-nonsense. it’s all about posturing so the donations keep coming in, for both the political and the religious. The GOP whores out American patriotism, and the spiritual elite whore out their God and His supposed teachings. And as long as enough of the voting public believe in their crap, and vote for them to the degree that it’s easy to rig the election to show a slim majority, no one’s gonna rock the boat.

  • CB, recall that back in May of this year you wrote about the fact that Republicans were starting to loose the evangelical vote. Rove must be concerned that the evangelicals will stay home in November. Dobson-who you will recall speaks to Rove, most notably about Supreme Court nominees-is simply using a rhetorical ploy for GOTV purposes. jc sums this ploy up nicely:They’re SOBs – but they’re OUR SOBs. The unspoken conclusion is: now get your asses to the polls.

  • It’s too bad Dobson and al Qaeda call their gods by different names; otherwise they could have a beautiful relationship.

    I wish both parties would realize that if the Republicans, with control of all three branches, still don’t have the political clout to push forward the theocratic agenda, then MAYBE WE CAN STOP PAYING LIP SERVICE TO THE THEOCRATS.

  • I have to confess now that I am a fan of the TV show Survivor. I don’t tune in to see dirty 20 year olds in bikinis beg rod cheeseburgers (that is only a perk). I like the social side of the show. People move themselves forward by forming alliances. Eventually the members have to start turning on eachother to stay alive. They hedge bets and double-cross. In the end the two who do this the best are placed in front of the people they double crossed and one is given $1MM. Some people who get kicked out are angry with the one who betrayed them. Others decide the one who ousted them deserves to win since they were good enough to stay in the game. Sounds like Dobson it one of the later.

    I wonder what Dobson thinks America will be like liberals take charge? For a man who claims to be close to god he shre seems afraid.

  • I think the religion/right alliance is a two-way street not just in political terms, but in the important spiritual ways…like MONEY!

    I imagine that the biggies, Dobson, Flawedwell and Gopertson, pull in almost as much cash because of their Republican support as the Republicans do because of their religion support.

    Where’s Dobson gonna go.
    He’s a Repub ho.

  • I like the idea of a new party for Dobson, et. al. We could have the donkey, the elephant, and maybe a hissing snake wrapped around a cross.

  • Apropos of this, here’s a tidbit from the race for Alaska governor.

    Democrat Tony Knowles has raised the issue of abortion in the campaign, as a way of distinguishing himself from Republican Sarah Palin (since, on most policy issue, they are eerily similar). The Anchorage Daily News reported Wednesday that Palin is crying foul. “I think it’s a shame that anyone would try to make this issue a headline, banner issue in the campaign when it’s not.”

    Now, Palin is anti-abortion, and anti-abortion voters have nowhere else to go. But they may find it distasteful that she’s denying the existence of people who make abortion an issue in every election. Giving them the very could shoulder that Dobson complains about.

  • I have no problem not feeling sorry for him.

    He let himself be used. He knew the GOP’s priorities were to big business and big contributors not the social conservatives. He knew the GOP was using “family values” rhetoric to get elected and keep the party together but was only going to give the social conservatives so much. His mistake was thinking that the party aparchik cared about sex issues (including abortion and gays) as much as he did. Or at least cared about sex issues more than money. Silly James. He was stupid and naive.

    Saying all that, he is going to still vote GOP – after all the alternative is to vote Dem (soooo not gonna happen) or field their own candidates (who are hardly likely to get elected).

  • This is what I have been predicting. The various groups that compose the Republican Party, the Religious Right and Theocrats (not quite the same), the no-taxers and small government types (see Joe Scarborough, for example), the Libertarians, etc. are all getting pretty upset at the Republicans paying lip-service to their ideas but not getting anything accomplished. (Of course, they can’t, because none of these positions would command a majority by itself.)
    Especially if the Republicans lose one or both Houses in 2006, ALL of them are going to be demanding a candidate that WILL do what they want, and will be blaming all the others for the losses. There will be three different cries of “A Choice, not an Echo” and a bloody and suicidal in-fighting for 2008. I’ve even predicted that there will be no majority candidate by convention time, for the first time since 1952, and the Convention will really have to make the choice. Can anyone say “Goldwater Debacle,” boys and girls.
    (And this is why I am so afraid of a Hilary candidacy that would be the one thing that could hold them together.)

  • As Dobson put it, “Whether or not the Republicans deserve the power they were given, the alternatives are downright frightening.”

    Yep, we could get a Democrat in power who actually does something about reducing unwanted pregnancies before they happen, and that will “limit” abortions. Now that would scare Dobson.

  • The whole idea of the right pandering to Dobson has never held much weight to me. They do things because they want to, not because Dobson tells them to.

    They have Dobson, no matter what, that crowd would rather perform public abortions on nuns then vote for a democrat. There is no reason to pander to them, they are a lock and Dobson just proved it.

    “What has the Republican Party done for you lately ?”

  • Its all about power. The global corporatist establishment uses ring leaders like Dobson to keep the masses coming, in this case the riligious right. Just like Friedman and the money pundits do for the free market religionists.

  • ET wrote: He let himself be used.

    No, I’m sure Dobson was well compensated through faith-based bribery. It’s his followers who are getting used.

  • “Whether or not the Republicans deserve the power they were given, the alternatives are downright frightening.”

    Huh. Change the name of the party, and that’s how I felt approaching the 1994 midterms.

  • I’ve been convinced for years that the legions of conservative Christians have, to say the least, a narrow view of issues. I was steeped in the Christian/Replublican tradition and yet I can’t really think of anything beyond abortion and homosexuality that really interests them. Everything else falls in line behind those 2 issues (e.g.: if legalized abortion and rights for gays must come with the package, then the estate tax, social security, welfare, diplomacy, immigrants, women’s rights, the U.N., etc., etc., must be evil too).

    Every institution, right or service that would make all of our lives better and allow the US to continue to be the successful world leader that it has been for 60 years, gets tossed on the garbage heap because legalized abortion and gays are so horrible.

    Of course, we all know the Replublicans have been using them and couldn’t give a whit about the rights of an embryo or fetus, nor do they really care whether someone is gay, as long as he/she is rich and/or can contribute to their own wealth or power.

    It strikes me as bitterly ironic that, even when they realize they’re not going to accomplish their stupid abortion-obsessed/homophobic agenda, it’s still worth it to turn their backs on truth, justice, peace, honesty, humility, charity and virtually every other christian value for the sake of the lip service paid to two issues that never amounted to a hill of beans to begin with.

  • Some general facts and input from a conservative Christian:
    1) Dobson founded “Focus on the Family Action” which is the politically involved organization that is not tax-exempt.
    2) Why does anyone who supports abortion also echo the cry that it should be “legal, safe and rare”? If abortion is truly a benign clinical procedure, like taking out a gallbladder, then there really shouldn’t be worry about it rarely occurring. So why is there concern that it rarely occur?
    3) Check statistics on what populations of Americans give the most money, give the most time over the broadest areas of our culture. Millions of dollars, many millions of dollars, are given by Christians to all kinds of charities. Who is left in New Orleans and the south cleaning up after Katrina? You’ll find hundreds of teams of Christians coming at their own expense, week after week, working to help rebuild. Just call for statistics on the Southern Baptist Men’s Crisis Teams alone….they have mobile trailers/feeding stations that responded to 9/11, Katrina and all sorts of disasters in between. All at their own expense.
    4)Lastly, why do some of you preach tolerance and diversity, but then through language around that is demeaning and hateful? You can’t have it both ways. If you value diversity then actually be open to others who have diverse beliefs and tolerate them respectfully. I hear this contradiction constantly coming from both ends of the parties….value diversity, until we meet someone we don’t like, then slam them and all they believe in.

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