When I saw the other day that the LA Times had run an op-ed by Frank Pastore, a religious-right talk-radio blowhard, I was floored. Here was yet another example of a not-so-liberal media offering a fringe extremist a high-profile platform for his lunacy. It turns out, I was too quick in my assessment.
To be sure, Pastore is mad as a hatter. He used his column to rail against liberals’ beliefs as “evil” and said Kerry and Edwards lost because they “reject” God. He implored his allies, who had just strengthened their hold on the federal government, not to compromise on anything.
Christians, in politics as in evangelism, are not against people or the world. But we are against false ideas that hold good people captive. On Tuesday, this nation rejected liberalism, primarily because liberalism has been taken captive by the left. Since 1968, the left has taken millions captive, and we must help those Democrats who truly want to be free to actually break free of this evil ideology.
In the weeks and months to come, we will hear the voices of well-meaning people beseeching the victor to compromise with the vanquished. This would be a mistake. Conservatives must not compromise with the left. Good people holding false ideas are won over only if we defeat what is false with the truth.
My hasty disgust for Pastore’s incoherent rant missed the bigger picture — we may have lost a close election on Tuesday, but most people, regardless of their ideology, would find guys like Pastore outrageous. As a result, the answer isn’t to dismiss op-eds like this one as fanatical, hate-filled tirades — though the description fits — it’s to hold this up as an example of what the right has become.
Kevin Drum, for example, said the LA Times did everyone a great service by publishing Pastore’s nonsense.
I wish the Times and other mainstream big-city newspapers would publish this kind of thing more often. Christian extremists mostly talk amongst themselves, and it would help galvanize liberals to actually hear the way they talk more often.
I think that’s true, but I’d take it one step further. I’ve watched countless episodes of the 700 Club, I’ve read dozens of issues of Falwell’s newsletter, I’ve attended a half-dozen Christian Coalition conferences, and I’ve been to two of Dobson’s “National Day of Prayer” events. The kind of hate these folks spew when they assume they’re just among friends would do more than just “galvanize liberals”; it would disgust moderates and centrist-leaning Republicans, if they were aware of what was being said.
As usual, my friend Eugene Oregon and I are of the same mind on this. In fact, Oregon has a message for those who backed Bush and other Republicans without realizing the company that they keep.
To these voters I say, “Your swing vote does not serve as a moderating influence on the Republican party. In fact, it does the opposite by endorsing a fanatic religious and cultural ideology that you would probably find terrifying if you were actually aware of it. So, for your edification, here is whom you’ve chosen to side with.”
Exactly. These so-called “values voters” don’t like Dems because they tie us to a caricature of Michael Moore, violent video games, and some rap video they caught a few seconds of on Entertainment Tonight. But the more mainstream voters know about the GOP “base,” and the hate coming from characters like Pastore, the less they’ll want to be a part of their team.