‘I think we now have Christian fascists’

November 10, 2006

The notion of a simmering schism between the Republican Party’s libertarian and Christian conservative wings isn’t exactly new. These two have never really gotten along, or even been on the same page, but they’ve trudged along under the GOP’s “big tent.” In the wake of this week’s election results, however, the fissures are becoming more pronounced.

Shortly before the midterms, as the GOP came to grips with what was coming, we saw some of these squabbles play out publicly. Dick Armey and James Dobson started going at it fairly aggressively, as did Grover Norquist and Tony Perkins. For that matter, in states like Kansas, many Republican officials became so fed up with the theocratic wing of the party, they switched parties and ran for re-election as Dems.

By way of Ron Chusid, I think we have our starkest example of this GOP problem to date. In this case, it’s in Iowa.

A day after the Democratic sweep of the midterm elections, Woodbury County Republican Chairman Steve Salem had harsh words for his own party, lambasting the influence of the conservative Christian right wing.

Salem said he coined a new phase: “You’ve heard of IslamaFascists — I think we now have Christian fascists. What is the definition of a fascist? Not only do they want to beat you, but they want to destroy you in the process.”

Salem said “if things keep going the way things are going locally and statewide, it is going to be more and more difficult for Republicans to recruit candidates. We have elements of the party who are moral absolutists, who take the approach that if you don’t take my position every step of the way, not only will I not support you, but I will destroy you.”

Well, that’s largely true; I’m just not accustomed to hearing Republican county chairpersons say so, on the record, to a reporter.

I don’t want to exaggerate the significance of a single anecdote here. This may just be an isolated instance of a GOP activist blowing off some steam after a tough election cycle.

But it may also be indicative of a party that’s facing an ugly identity crisis. When party leaders in a purple state start talking about the scourge of “Christian fascists,” I’d say the party has a bit of a problem.

Ah, the seperation of church and state IS a good idea after all! Now that the Republicans have been soundly repudiated by a moderate voting public, maybe they will re-examine their cozy little relationship with the hellfire and brimstone crowd. Let’s hope so.

  • Dear Rebublican leaders, pleasse pay no attention to members of your party spouting truth. Continue your crusade to clense the party of all those with moderate tendencies. We in the Democratic big tent have lots of room and we welcome them. Government of, for, and by THE PEOPLE!

  • Beep beep! The clue bus has arrived, hop on board. Oh, it ran you over. Too bad.

    I’m not in the mood to hand out cookies to people who are just now noticing they’ve inflicted a bunch of wing-nuts on themselves. He thinks they now have ChritoFascists? Please, the GOP was more than happy to promise that women who got abortions would have their noses bobbed and being gay would become a hanging offence and science would be purged from our schools or whatever else those freaks wanted to hear just to get their votes. Now he’s mad that the majority of the country said yuck to all that, and turned blue. What did he expect after pandering to the basest of Das Base? And now, only after a stunning loss do we hear any soul searching or anger.

    S.O.P for the G.O.P: Blame someone else for your problems.

    Next!

  • Salem said he coined a new phase: “You’ve heard of IslamaFascists — I think we now have Christian fascists. What is the definition of a fascist? Not only do they want to beat you, but they want to destroy you in the process.”

    I once heard/saw Nixon’s campaign director (except when “the new Nixon” lost) Murray Chotiner say — to Republican candidates and their campaign directors, at a conference in Asilomar CA — that “you don’t campaign to win an election. You campaign to so destroy your opponent that he will never ever raise his political head again. Your win is a by-product.”

    The tactic isn’t new with Salem or even Chotiner. The real Fascists in the 1930s had similar ideas about campaigning in a democracy. You could probably find somebody in ancient Athens who behaved much the same way.

  • The Southern states will now find their once powerful lobby for federal contracts in the crapper. The Northeast, Midwest, West, will slowly drain Federal dollars away from the South and spread them among the blue and purple states. The Southern states power both under the old democratic party power of the past and the recent republican congress has finally been check-mate!

  • “We have elements of the party who are moral absolutists, who take the approach that if you don’t take my position every step of the way, not only will I not support you, but I will destroy you.” – Steve Salem

    When you get your policies from God, compromise is not acceptable.

    Why is this not clear to everybody?

  • This “unholy” alliance was bound to splinter eventually, but I’m surprised that it appears to be happening this soon. Further proof that Rove’s “genius” was a temporary flash-in-the-pan. But whether the religious right stays with the Rs or goes off on it’s own, it’s good news for the reality-based community.

  • Notwithstanding the joys of schadenfreude, it is sobering to note that a mere few thousand votes alone saved us from having our own identity crisis and meltdown over why, even under current circumstances, we couldn’t garner an outright win in the Senate. Still, I’m having a ball watching all our internal arguments over the last six years play out on the other side of the court. May their losses rattle them as much as ours did us.

  • My 24 years in Iowa (ending in 2002) tell me this has been a long time coming.

    Not many years after Mary Louise Smith had served as national GOP chair, she had to sneak into a Republican national convention with a press pass because the members of her own party refused to give her credentials.

    Iowa also loved GOP governor Robert Ray, who was more a pragmatist than an ideologue.

    While Kansas-style defections have yet to hit the Iowa GOP, they’ve got to be paying attention if they want to prevent them.

  • The Christian cons call themselves the moral majority. We know they aren’t moral. Did you know they’re not even a majority.

    Christian Con – 30,000,000
    Know Betters – 42,000,000 http://www.hoax-buster.org
    Don’t know/care – 228,000,000

    The word conservative at least implies conserving, holding for the future. This insignificant idiot fringe is trying to conserve the biggest lie ever told, God speaking to Moses,, or was that Muhammad,, nah,, Joseph Smith.

    Of the 30 million CCons a full 1/3 are just keeping up appearances. It a large number, 21 million Americans that actually believe what they say. The rest are pretenders for one reason or the other.

  • Why can’t Republicans win elections? It must be because they are wimps and losers and cowards and have no values. They lack party discipline. They can’t seem to make things happen in the congress. Why oh why can’t Republicans win?

    The ChristoBanditos thought they could render from unto Caesar and not have to give anything in return. Crossing the line of church and state is a Faustian bargain and they’ve already had their empty rewards and now it’s time to pay up. George the Messiah has turned out to be George the Mess.
    They’re down to their third and last wish and it had better be a wish to be like they were before.

  • “…it is sobering to note that a mere few thousand votes alone saved us from having our own identity crisis and meltdown over why, even under current circumstances, we couldn’t garner an outright win in the Senate.” — N.Wells

    This is something the Dems cannot afford to forget during the next two years. The Repubs certainly won’t.

  • I think it’s nice to see a GOP’er say what we have been saying for the last 6 years. Some of ’em get it.

    Word of advice to Steve Salem: Get ready for a slap-down from the National Republican’t Committee. Not only will you have to turn in your membership card, but you will be stripped, beaten and stoned in the public square.

  • We need a lot more of this. Republicans call evangelicals “rubes” and “fascists,” Dobson threatens Republicans with a loss of the vaunted “values” voter.

    I wish there was a way to ratchet up this war of words between these two wings of the GOP, because eventually one or the other is going to break off and form a third party. Anything that ties these bastards up and stops them from winning more elections is great.

  • This little episode reminds me of the scene in “Return of the King” where the Orcs start fighting among themselves. Never a bunch that got along all that well, the stress of losing has added pressure along fault lines that were already close to the breaking point.

    I have absolutely no qualms about enjoying the fights that are coming. None, whatsoever…

  • As an Iowan, let me add the extra fun part to the Woodbury County quote. Woodbury County is in Congressman Steve “Abu Grahib was like Frat Hazing” King’s district. If the Theofascists and the Retro Republicans start fighting there, it may be a sign that hell has frozen over.

  • Maybe the right wing, bible thumping, kill for Jesus crowd will be dumped by the Rethugs, and if that happens, I guess they are without a party. Perhaps they should all move to some country where they can reign supreme and dictate any and evrything to their brow beaten disciples… like Afghanistan, or Saudi Arabia.

  • How’s this for a wet dream: in Kansas, the theocons have purged the GOP of all but themselves, and had one of their own thrashed in the run for state attorney general by one of the purgees, running as a Dem. Now, if we can “help” the Iowans do it by throwing out the theos; and “help” the Mo. GOP to oust the theos and neos, to get pure; and so on…by their next national convention, the building will explode.

  • Salem said he coined a new phase: “You’ve heard of IslamaFascists — I think we now have Christian fascists.

    Tscha! If Salem had read the blogs, he could have spared himself the mental effort. “Theo-fascists” is a term that has been floating around the blogosphere for a long time. And it’s a “one size fits all” term, too….

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