The Sophism Wing of the Republican Party

Let me piggieback on Gamecock’s post on religion in politics.  I’ll go a step further. The “analysts” who are commenting on this race seem to have ignored what actually happened in order to fit their own agendas.

We had a Democratic Nominee who had groups like “Believers for Barack,” and spent tens of millions of dollars reaching out to religious voters, running ads on Christian radio stations, handing out fliers with pictures of the said candidate in a church in front of a big cross. The Democrat won against a Republican who was reluctant to talk about his faith. The conclusion: The Republicans need to become a more secular party.

The Republicans nominated the man who wrote McCain-Feingold, who opposed drilling in ANWR, who made a great point of his support for Embryonic Stem Cell Research, disassociated himself from Christian ministers who criticized Islam, and made bi-partisanship a centerpiece of his campaign. The Conclusion: Republicans need to nominate more moderate candidates.

The Democrats ran a candidate who rejected Hillarycare, promised tax cuts for 95% of Americans, pledged to reduce abortions, and cut government waste. The Conclusion: Conservatism is dead.

I’m bemused by the urge to blame Religious Conservatives, when the candidate endorsed in the by Republicans for Choice in the Republican Primaries was the Republican nominee.

Jonah Goldberg highlights a problem with this argument:

Economically conservative social liberals are the “jackalopes of American politics,” in the words of the National Review Institute’s Kate O’Beirne. The press keeps telling us they exist out there in huge numbers, but when you go looking for them, they refuse to emerge from the bushes.

Indeed. Meanwhile, Social Conservative voters are a reality that delivered tens of millions of votes to John McCain, despite some serious reservations. When it comes to ticking off faithful social conservatives, it’s not even a question of trading a bird in the hand, for two in the bush. It’s trading a bird in the hand for a Jackelope and a Unicorn in the bush.