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Religious right still under the delusion that it’s calling the shots

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For the first open cycle in a long while, the religious right has had no discernable impact on the presidential race. And yet, the movement continues to believe that it’s powerful enough to start calling the shots when it comes to the Republican ticket, or at a minimum, that the religious right can veto those who fall short of its standards.

In May, the movement let it be known that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) was unacceptable as McCain’s running mate. TV preacher Pat Robertson’s network reported that many “pro-family leaders and activists … all agree that if John McCain picks Florida Governor Charlie Crist as his running mate, there will be MAJOR dissatisfaction among social conservatives.”

Earlier this month, the religious right said Joe Lieberman was out of the question. “Lieberman’s a great pick for McCain if he doesn’t want to be president,” the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins said. The Southern Baptist Convention’s Richard Land called a possible Lieberman VP pick “a catastrophe.”

And this week, the movement said Mitt Romney won’t do, either.

Prominent evangelical leaders are warning Sen. John McCain against picking former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as his running mate, saying their troops will abandon the Republican ticket on Election Day if that happens.

They say Mr. Romney lacks trust on issues such as outlawing abortion and opposing same-sex marriage and because he is a Mormon. Opposition is particularly powerful among those who supported former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in the Republican presidential primaries earlier this year.

“McCain and Romney would be like oil and water,” said evangelical novelist Tim LaHaye, who supported Mr. Huckabee. “We aren’t against Mormonism, but Romney is not a thoroughgoing evangelical and his flip-flopping on issues is understandable in a liberal state like Massachusetts, but our people won’t understand that.”

The Rev. Rob McCoy, pastor of Calvary Chapel in Thousand Oaks, Calif., who speaks at evangelical events across the country, told The Washington Times, “I will vote for McCain unless he does one thing. You know what that is? If he puts Romney on the ticket as veep.”

This is all terribly foolish.

First, when a guy like Tim LaHaye says, “We aren’t against Mormonism,” it’s not exactly a stretch to think they’re against Mormonism. For many evangelicals, this was a problem during the Republican primaries, and religious right activists haven’t exactly grown more tolerant over the last few months.

Second, this is a largely hollow threat. McCain and his campaign are well aware of the fact that plenty of religious right leaders swore up and down that they’d never support McCain — James Dobson, LaHaye, Phyllis Schlafly, Mat Staver, David Barton, Rick Scarborough, etc. — but they’ve since come around. If McCain picks Romney, he’ll do so assuming that the religious right will remain loyal to the GOP, and he’ll probably be right.

And third, the religious right seems to hold no sway over McCain whatsoever. That these leaders think they have some kind of veto power is absurd. Religious right opposition to McCain was barely a speed bump in January — what makes “prominent evangelical leaders” think they’re in position to call the shots now? What is it, exactly, that these groups have done to gain credibility with the McCain campaign?

McCain & Co. know that these religious right leaders ultimately got behind the Republican campaign in exchange for nothing. McCain largely ignored them, they huffed and puffed, but once the general election campaign began in earnest, the religious right fell in line. If they seriously believe they can block Romney now, by making half-hearted threats, they’re fooling themselves.

Comments

  • Media Browski

    says:

    They say that politics becomes the most bloody when the possible gains are the smallest; there’s very little power left in the Republican Party to fight over at this point. Here’s to an epic collapse!

  • JT

    says:

    They’ve been fooling themselves for years now on so many issues. Why should this one be any different?

  • Capt Kirk

    says:

    McCain needs to take these people into account, he needs their votes. So I suggest he pick the Rev. Jerry Falwell as his running mate. The fact that he’s dead will assure voters that he won’t unduly influence the White House or run an office of propaganda, as we have seen during the last two terms. Also by being dead, Falwell would make McCain seem much more youthful and vigorous. If by chance, McCain falls ill, the solution would be a simple and quick Armageddon and Falwell could assume the presidency in a post rapture state of being. Surely this arrangement would satisfy holdouts like Dobson, LaHaye, Phyllis Schlafly, Mat Staver, David Barton, Rick Scarborough, etc.

  • Jane

    says:

    It doesnt matter the religious are spread across the voting board this electoin.
    McCain is just about done, I wouldnt doubt the GOP ditch him at the last second and run a younger more charasmatic charachter. They could site his Cancer scare as the reason. I dont doubt that they will, Becuase he is becoming more unelectable by the day, with gaff after gaff. Did you see him knock all that stuff off the shelf at the supermarket. the video is at http://www.mccanes.com all the while barack obama is looking like an NBA super star, (arrogence and all) even taking time to stop and have a cigar break video at http://www.theobamaplan.com I mean really what is the GOP going to do. McCain cannot win at this point and we havnt even started the debates.

  • limbaugh's pilonidal cyst

    says:

    McCain hates the fundies more than he hates Democrats (but slightly less than he hates Jane Fonda). Besides, he knows that they’ve got not voting for Obama and who else have they got? All he has to do is raise the specter of a Democratic president appointing the next three or four Supremes for confirmation by a Democratic Senate and they’ll fall right back in line.

  • JC

    says:

    Thumpers are all about telling people how not to live. The irony of existence for that constituency is maddening, and a constant reminder on why I am saving my children from religion.

    Let them endorse Sen. McCain. It won’t matter. Few will be motivated to actually vote this time around, regardless the instructions from their leaders.

    “Baa-aa! Baa-aa!” (Um, those are sheep noises)

  • The Answer is Orange

    says:

    The tedious whining to the useless.

    If I didn’t know better I’d get the impression the TalEvan is deathly afraid someone will win an election without their approval.

    Interesting that they’re set against Lieberman. I mean, we know he’s a dick but that combined with his supposed Israeliness should make him the Fundies’ darling. Hmm…

  • TCG

    says:

    Please Pick Willard Romney.

    I wanna see Jame (Sponge Bob may make your kids Gay) Dobson shill for Mittens. That’d rock.

  • TCG

    says:

    Maybe Dan Quayle’s up for a second stint at the Whitehouse. McCain ought to consider him.

    Fundamentalist leaders loved Danimal if I recall correctly.

  • voter

    says:

    And if that is what McCain believes, he will be sorely mistaken. Many evangelicals will absolutely NOT vote for a McCain/Romney ticket — some will but enought will not. In fact, there is a smaller minority that will not vote for McCain no matter what. I am not part of the religious right (whoever that’s supposed to be because I do consider myself to be a practicing Catholic but not an evangelical), but I am aware of what is going on. Ignore reality at your peril.

  • Patrick

    says:

    I think the notion that McCain isn’t going to be the nominee is a real possibility and cancer could be the easy way out. With that in mind, then it makes sense for him to continue to attack Obama, without offering up any positive vision for what he would accomplish himself. If he is not going to stay in the race, he can keep trying just to bloody Obama without risk of backlash for all his negativity. He can throw up the craziest arguements that the media will give him free coverage of, and some of it will stick with the morons that don’t follow as closely as we do. That really sucks if that is the plan.

  • GuyFromOhio

    says:

    And third, the religious right seems to hold no sway over McCain whatsoever.

    Hmmm, let’s see, a divorced adulterer versus a committed church-going Christian still in his first marriage … gosh, that’s a really tough choice for the family values creatures! The exploding heads may make quite the mess.

    Rove cashed the checks and fled in 2004 – it was a one-time gig not to be repeated. The gasbags may fall in line, but I suspect the rank and file will either skip or actually vote their conscience come November.

  • Diogenes

    says:

    You know, I feel a strange kind of kinship with the religious right. Sure, their views are regressive, medieval, and willfully naive. However, like progressives, their party just assumes they’ll fall in because the candidate has the appropriate letter next to his name on the ballot. They’ll carp, complain, swear that they’re holding their noses, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. They’ll still pick the candidate of their party, because realistically, where else are they going to go?

  • GuyFromOhio

    says:

    He can throw up the craziest arguements that the media will give him free coverage of, and some of it will stick with the morons that don’t follow as closely as we do. That really sucks if that is the plan.

    I regret that appears to be The Plan. No strength or credibility to build on, so fling poo at anything that moves until November. The upside is the Democrats continue brand-building while the fascists continue brand-burning – bodes poorly for the short term but well for the long term.

  • TomB

    says:

    I look forward to the election year when a mention of the Religious Right sounds incredibly anachronistic.

  • joey

    says:

    Religion has become a corporate entity and their leaders are less agents of God than moralists wielding financial power to influence politics and increase their bottom line. Their hypocrisy has become increasingly apparent as they reject building medical schools in favor of building law schools. Rather than trying to be charitable institutions they are increasingly trying to become judiciary powers dedicated to controlling the behavior of US citizens.

    Members are seeing their leaders growing away from God and toward becoming a political party. Fine…run Pat Robertson again but like Hagee who vies for the destruction of Israel and the Jews unless they become Christians, their use of the republican party is merely a means toward an end which is detrimental to the republican party and to the majority of US citizens. The more they rant about their condemnation of what they will not tolerate the more members question “Just who do you think you are?”, because you don’t speak for us.

  • MsJoanne

    says:

    I have been saying all along that the GOP is going to ditch McCain. And his abysmal performance thus far only strengthens that thought. This thing he had removed from his face is their out.

    Now I wonder who will be the real nominee…not the presumptive one. Who might voters like? Huckabee? Romney?

    I think this years Surprise won’t be in October…I think it will be earlier.

  • Always hopeful

    says:

    Ms Joanne and Jane may be right. I hope they don’t run Huckabee though because the RR loves him and they will pour out of the pews to vote. I don’t know if they are finished as far a political influence goes, but from my seat here in Texas they will be rolling in the aisles in ecstasy. We need the race to be just as it is.

  • NonyNony

    says:

    I have been saying all along that the GOP is going to ditch McCain. And his abysmal performance thus far only strengthens that thought. This thing he had removed from his face is their out.

    Now I wonder who will be the real nominee…not the presumptive one. Who might voters like? Huckabee? Romney?

    The problem is – if there was a candidate that the voters were going to like, he would have beaten McCain in the primary. Part of the reason that McCain got support in the primary was because he was the candidate that Republican voters coalesced around as being the candidate who was the “least unacceptable” to all of the various GOP factions and being the “most electable” in the fall. (Kind of like John Kerry for the Dems in 2004 – he wasn’t the one that any particular faction among the Dems really wanted, but he was viewed as the “most electable and least unacceptable” to the majority of them).

    If there was a better candidate than McCain, he would have been the nominee. If McCain drops out for health issues, the best they’re going to be able to do is replace him with Romney, or Huckabee, or any number of folks who weren’t capable of winning the primary in the first place. No one is going to be happy with that. (Though I’d love to think that the Ron Paul faction of the GOP could shake things up and get him on the ticket with some brokered convention shenanigans, for the sheer amusement value and to see my conservative dad’s expression when it happened, if nothing else. I’ve never before heard him spew vitriol about a Republican like he did about Ron Paul. Crazy.)

  • slappy magoo

    says:

    these proclamations are more about donations to their organizations/ministries than it is about giving (or not giving) support to the GOP. “give me money & I’ll fight for you, who else will?”

  • Molly Weasley

    says:

    The entire GOP field this year was an unbelievable bunch of losers. If you were ever unfortunate enough to watch any of those debates without your head exploding, you would have been treated to stupid talking points, inconsistent claims and outright lies (of course, that’s not very different from McCain’s campaign).

    I think McCain will stick around, and I hope he doesn’t pick Romney, because that really could put Michigan in play.

    But the “leave because of cancer” idea is intriguing. Then he could just go back to his old job of not going to the Senate.

  • Steve

    says:

    My prediction is that the Xenophobic Knuckledraggerdom of WingNuttia will announce “their” choice for McCain’s VP—about ten minutes after McCain announces his choice for VP—thus demonstrating to all the world their “bodacious power” over the GOP.

  • DB

    says:

    Ahhhhh…..What it would be like to be one of the unthinking masses that lets their ‘leaders’ tell them how to vote. Then all of this hard stuff like reading policy reports and critical thinking would be so unnecessary.

    Then I could spend more of my time drinking beer and watching old NASCAR races(no offense to NASCAR fans, i think racing is cool. I just can’t sit all day and watch circle track, unless I am extremely drunk or high)

  • Mike in Austin

    says:

    The so-called Religious Right doesn’t make any sense to me. They are so mission-oriented that they support activist presidents that will push their own agenda, but freak out about activist presidents who support a different agenda. The idea here is to avoid activism in the White House completely. They believe Mitt will go in and use the office to make the world Mormon because they believe a president making the world in their mold is perfectly acceptable. I consider myself a socially conservative Christian and I have no desire to see political offices used to push an agenda down people’s throats. I love for pols to have beliefs and values and to talk about them if they feel a need to, but this religious checklist we have now in both parties is just absurd. I mean, they really asked Mitt during a freaking presidential debate how he feels about the Bible. Just idiotic. Can someone talk about policy, please? I pray (literally) that groups like the Religious Right fail in their effort to monopolize political control in order to force feed a moral agenda. It’s bordering on fascism, and I’m no fan of that either.

  • unfriendlyfire

    says:

    It’d be sort of interesting to see Ron Paul as Republican VP candidate. Can you imagine the absurd stuff we’d hear during the debates? You thought McCain was going to get demolished…

    It won’t happen, of course. What the GOP is looking for is some kind of exciting candidate who can stir up some excitement over McCain’s moribund campaign, and there’s no such animal in the Republican Party right now. There’s Bobby Jindal, who’s the latest regressive nut getting pimped as the next Reagan, but the inbred bigots who vote Republican won’t vote for a brown guy. Even Jindal realizes that.

  • GR

    says:

    No delusion or foolishness involved. No one thinks they can dictate anything to John McCain. But what they clearly can dictate is to what extent they’re involved in helping McCain. Most conservative Christians will hold their nose and vote for McCain in Nov, and he’d still lose. Because what they won’t do is pound the pavement, work the phones, write the checks, leaflet church parking lots, etc., between now and November. And all the more so if McCain adds to his ticket a NE liberal gov who thinks the Boy Scouts are wrong not to allow homosexuals, who supports state “gay rights” laws like the one that forced Catholic Charities in Boston out of the adoption referral business because they refused to capitulate to the state mandate that they process homosexual adoptions. After that happened, Romney told Tim Russert last December that he still thought such laws were appropriate at the state level (in explaining why he was flip-flopping…again…on his earlier endorsement of federal “gay rights” legislation.

  • Joe

    says:

    Mitt Romney governed conservatively even though he was Governor of a very liberal state. He defended traditional marriage, he defended life, and he rescued the budget without raising taxes in Mass. This is conservatism at its finest. Furthermore, his faith is a strength for conservatism… his church is one of the reasons why the ban on gay marriage in California happenned… his church is one the most conservative and family-values-based churches there is, and even Mitt’s own family is a great example of a good American family. He was never divorced. Mitt has lived Christian principles. And in a time of economic turmoil, who better to put on the ticket than a guy who has made a living turning corporations around.

    For these wacko evangelicals to be so critical of someone who stands so strongly for so many of the values they believe in, it can only be seen as bigotry. I think they’re making themselves more and more irrelevant as time goes on. I have plenty of evangelical, Catholic, protestant and LDS friends here in Michigan that are hoping for McCain to pick Romney.

    And don’t even suggest Huck… I will certainly not vote McCain if that guy is picked for VP. Last thing we need is a pro-life liberal who lets criminals loose if they say they are “saved” and gets paid thousands of dollars to give anti-Catholic and anti-Mormon speeches. “Christian leader”? More like Christian divider.

  • jimBOB

    says:

    I’d agree with NonyNony – McCain got the nomination by default because the others were even more ridiculous. (One thing I will say about Republicans – they’re pretty good at picking the strongest candidate as their nominee. This cycle they just didn’t have much to work with.)

    Ditching McCain at this point would be a disaster for them for a number of reasons. First, it makes them look bumbling and desperate; what was the point of all those primaries if they’re going to ditch their pick over a skin growth? Secondly, it’d be a disaster from an organizational point of view. A national presidential campaign is a huge, complex undertaking. The new candidate would be either stuck with an organization created and staffed by his stumblebum predecessor, or he’d have to create the whole thing on the fly.

    Obama has used the time since he sewed up the nomination to good advantage, taking firm control of the national Democratic party apparatus and moving his people into position all the way up and down the line. My local Obama coordinators have got to know their assigned areas and have established relationships with the local activist base, so they’re going to be set up and ready for the election. Republican candidate NonMcCain would be at square one on that, months behind and with less than 100 days to go till election day.

    They truly are stuck with McCain. But a big part of the reason he’s the nominee is because he was their best choice. He still is. This cycle they are just screwed.

  • Mr. T

    says:

    To think Southern Evangelicals will not vote for McCain if he picks Romeny is nonsense. Everyone knows Southern Evangelicals hate blacks way more than they hate Mormons. Also if Obama picks Richardson look for a record Southern Evangelical turnout. Sure the Religious Right sort of hates Mormons but they really hate minorities. Bigotry gas degrees of hate. Mormons are only about a 6 on their hate scale. Obama and Richardson are at least a 9. If one of them came out as gay they could possibly get the perfect hate score.

  • Shaun

    says:

    America- the once-great nation that now completely ignores actual qualifications of presidential candidates and focuses exclusively on skin color, gender, and religious preference for the judgment of presidential worthiness. Does such a country really deserve protection from Al-Queda in the Creator and author of the American Constitution? Is such a country truly capable of economically competing with China and India?

    I’m SICK of:
    -bigoted, self-righteous, and power-hungry “far religious right” evangelists
    -racist Obama supporters who steal from the hard-working and invite terrorists to dinner
    -all the politicians who will say anything to get a vote and the gullible masses who consistently believe them

    Unfortunately, I think it’s going to take an economic meltdown or worse for this country to repent. 9/11 wasn’t enough to wake us up… Maybe after such a meltdown, we’ll start to look at character and ability as qualifications to lead…

  • Shaun

    says:

    sorry- I left out the world “eyes” in the 2nd sentence of my above comment. Does our country deserve protection from Al Queda in the eyes of the Creator when we’re as evil as they are—that’s my point. We’re like a fat ostrich with its head in the ground. Evil surrounds us and economic competition is about to wake us up to reality in a way that the 1929ers only dreamed about….

  • Brian

    says:

    Hmm I think the “religious right”, a.k.a true God-honoring Christians, does hold a lot of sway in the Republican party. And they should, because the Republican party has reached out to us by espousing our values (for the most part, got to watch out for RINOs though), and that is the reason George Bush is in the oval office today. If the evangelicals didn’t vote Republican I can tell you right now that liberal democrats would be in power.

  • William Ockham

    says:

    I’m afraid nobody here really understands what’s going on inside the Religious Right. First, the lay leadership (Perkins, Dobson, Land, etc.) are losing their hold on the faithful. They’re making a desperate attempt to seem like kingmakers to maintain their influence within Republican politics before anybody notices they can’t deliver. Likewise, the political preachers (Hagee, Copeland, et. al.) are becoming radioactive to politicians even as they still hold sway over their flocks.

    Most of the evangelical leadership either was opposed or lukewarm to Huckabee but the folks in the pews loved him and turned out for him. McCain could count on stronger support from ‘values voters’ if he chose Huckabee as VP, but I suspect the monied interests in the Republican party won’t allow it. They are horrified of the prospect of Huckabee being the putative leader of the party (they know how old McCain is). The RR already controls the party apparatus in more than a few states, much to the chagrin of the big money folks.

    Picking Romney as VP would deal serious damage to the Republican party. The RR might be able to pretend that Crist isn’t gay, but they can’t pretend Romney isn’t a Mormon. The problem for Romney is that while typical conservative Christians don’t hate Mormons the way they hate gays, they don’t know any Mormons, so all they have to look at is someone who’s a member of a suspect group. Picking Romney would kill McCain’s chances of bringing out the RR in the numbers he needs. In fact, you’ll see some defections to Barr and Obama. They can both speak the language of evangelicals in a way that McCain and Romney will never be able to do.

    In fact, I think that a McCain-Romney ticket just might make this a serious realignment election. The Republicans are on the short end of a very big demographic change. Young voters are solidly Democratic now and with Obama as the party leader, the Democrats have a chance to lock in a 2-1 or 3-1 generational advantage with voters between 18-35. If the RR splits with big business, Latinos come back to the Democratic party, and Obama manages to end the war in Iraq, where’s the glue that holds the Republican party together? Their only advantage is among older white male voters, literally a dying breed. The gays, blacks, and muslims just don’t scare the young folk like they used to.

  • Cheryl

    says:

    Not to be a naysayer, but … this all sounds vaguely familiar. What was it…oh, yes, I remember: unions, minorities, LGBT … — who are they gonna vote for — the Dems. So why should the Democrats pay them any heed, they’ll vote D for sure.

    But then Reagan busted the unions, W appealed to middle- and upper-class minority groups, and the LGBT, well, I guess they still have to vote D unless they’re part of the hapless, hopeless Log Cabin folks.

    The pendulum swings, and today it swings in favor of our party. But it might only be due to the demise of the other party, not that the Democrats are doing a better job taking care of its base!!

    And if the Republicans ever go back to their roots — which don’t include social engineering and does include fiscal responsibility, then the Democrats will have a lot to worry about since they take much of the support of its base for granted.

  • Nathan

    says:

    Ultra-Religious Right-wing Christians delusional? Ironic to say the least. If these guys really want Republicans to care about them, they have to make the republicans lose an election. Just sit one out and let the Dems win in a landslide. Lets say they do, then the Republicans are in a tough spot. They lose the evangelicals or they go right wing and lose any independents also guaranteeing them a loss. Its a win-win situation for the Dems and finally the unholy trinity of big business, religion, and the republican party will end.

  • karen

    says:

    I find it interesting that being a Mormon, I have never once in my life had a church leader tell me how to vote or even make a recommendation. You will never see our leaders in the news supporting one candidate over another or state that we as a group will not vote for someone. This is true within our church meetings as well. It seems to me that many of the so called religious right are projecting their own behaviors onto those whose religous beliefs differ from their own. This creates a regrettable state for our election process as religous narrowmindedness takes precedence over reasoned judgement.

  • ST

    says:

    Who divides Republicans? Evangelicals, yes, Christ said “if you are not one, you are not mine” Who puts down on other Christians? Evangelicals who is so proud of themselves and they are self serving people but don’t live what they believe to be.
    Who tricks in sneaky way? Evangelicals. Shame on you! You are just like priest in the New Testament. You live by law, Others live by the words of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

    You are scary as much as Obama as a socialist. IF YOU CALL YOURSELF AS A CHRISTIAN, WHY DON’T YOU GUYS UNITE INSTEAD OF DIVIDE OUR PARTY?
    I DON’T BELIEVE ALL THE EVANGELICALS ARE NOT BRAIN WASHED LIKE THE ONE WHO IS SO JEALOUS ABOUT A LEADER WHO IS POPULAR!
    VOTE FOR MCCAIN 08′ BETTER THAN OBAMA MAKES THIS COUNTRY A SOCIALIM!

  • ST

    says:

    Lds Church won’t decide or brainwash people who to believe or who to vote!! The Church is Not the place to talk about politics especially Southern Evangelicals. You spent our tax money to build your church buildings and now you put down on us ??

    the Church, you are supposed to talk about Christ, do not mix your religion over your sacred teachings!! Everyone will have free of choosing who they want to vote! Do not act like Satan who will control people by authority. Love one another, don’t judge otherwise you will be judged in the last day. I don’t trust some of Evangelicals who talks like Satanic way like evil with hate feeelings. You can have the spirit of the Lord if you hate someone.
    Be a good example of our Savior. Come down and looking at yourself when you are speaking of ill of others. “REPENT! AND COME UNTO ME”