{"id":12918,"date":"2007-09-18T11:13:37","date_gmt":"2007-09-18T15:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/12918.html"},"modified":"2007-09-18T11:13:37","modified_gmt":"2007-09-18T15:13:37","slug":"blowing-off-values-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/blowing-off-values-voters\/","title":{"rendered":"Blowing off ‘values voters’"},"content":{"rendered":"

In case there was any doubt that the religious right’s power is on the wane, even in Republican circles, the evidence was quite clear last night in South Florida. Several evangelical groups co-hosted what they labeled the “Values Voter Debate,” featuring theocratic right-wing luminaries like Phyllis Schlafly, Roy Moore, Paul Weyrich, Don Wildmon, Rick Scarborough, and Janet Folger. The event was “moderated” by Joseph Farah<\/a>, the unhinged activist who founded WorldNetDaily.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the event was announced, the debate organizers said seven of the nine GOP candidates would participate. Shortly thereafter, sponsors lowered expectations, saying only that a “majority” would participate. By the time candidates took the stage last night, the entire Republican top-tier — Rudolph Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, and John McCain — was a no-show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Little more than asterisks in the public opinion polls, the lesser-known candidates for president tried Monday to appeal to the most conservative elements of the Republican Party in an attempt to break into top-tier status.<\/p>\n

Hot-button social issues, especially related to abortion and homosexuality, were the most frequent questions posed to seven candidates for their party’s presidential nomination at the Values Voter debate at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To get to seven, organizers had to include Alan Keyes and John Cox.<\/p>\n

Rudy Giuliani was surprisingly bold in snubbing<\/a> the religious right organizers. His campaign cited scheduling difficulties when declining to attend the debate in South Florida, but according to his campaign schedule, he was four miles away<\/i>, attending an event in Fort Lauderdale at the same time as the event. The religious right hasn’t been thrilled with Giuliani anyway, but this looks like an instance in which the former mayor was trying<\/i> to offend them.<\/p>\n

That said, given that the event was created by extremists for extremists, the “Values Voter” debate included a few gems.
\n
\n* Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said we’re in the midst of a “theological war. It’s not politically correct to say that. It’s just the truth.”<\/p>\n

* “If a judicial candidate can look at a sonogram of an unborn child and not see a valuable human life, I will not appoint that judicial candidate to the federal bench,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.).<\/p>\n

* Alan Keyes linked the fight against terrorism to abortion. He said the fight against killing is no different than the “fight against the killing of innocents in the womb. The killing is the same. The principle is the same.”<\/p>\n

* Several of the candidates told the audience when they accepted Jesus Christ as their personal saviors.<\/p>\n

Religious right leader Janet Folger was unrestrained in threatening<\/a> those who neglected to participate in the debate. To those who “had something more important to do than talk to those of us who represent God’s principles,” Folger had a prediction: “Those who snubbed us, they will not win…. They will regret the decision.”<\/p>\n

Maybe, maybe not. To be sure, religious-right activists are a major part of the Republican Party base, but we’ve apparently reached a point at which credible candidates don’t want to be seen with nutty figures like Schlafly, Moore, Weyrich, and Wildmon. I can’t say I blame them.<\/p>\n

As for the audience, debate organizers said they had a waiting list with people anxious to attend the event, but they were probably bearing false witness — about a third of the 2,700 seats at the Broward Center for Performing Arts were empty.<\/p>\n

Don’t go away mad, religious right; just go away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In case there was any doubt that the religious right’s power is on the wane, even in Republican circles, the evidence was quite clear last night in South Florida. Several evangelical groups co-hosted what they labeled the “Values Voter Debate,” featuring theocratic right-wing luminaries like Phyllis Schlafly, Roy Moore, Paul Weyrich, Don Wildmon, Rick Scarborough, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}