The majority of Republican voters would be social conservatives (no abortion, no gay marriage, prayer in school, any religious issue), voting more about culture than the right wing’s economic policies, which many actually don’t like but barely pay attention to. BUT the people actually in charge of the party are fiscal conservatives (love of money over Jesus, tax cuts for the rich, eliminating social security/medicare/any entitlement, prayer in who?). The Tea Party and their draconian budget cuts of any and every social program have only made that problem worse.
But instead of declaring a civil war with fiscal conservatives, social conservatives just sit there and take it. Right now the only battle going on in the Republican Party is between pragmatic fiscal conservatives like Richard Luger, Orrin Hatch, and John Boehner and the extreme fiscal conservatism of the Tea Party, which never met a government program they didn’t want to eliminate and sell the pieces of to private corporations. The debate within the party right now is whether to cut welfare or cut all welfare, not anything social conservatives really care about (many of them on welfare).
So why do social conservatives (a far larger voting block than fiscal conservatives and their big money interests) still think the GOP is the place for them? Mostly because they don’t see an alternative in the Democrats. But let me tell you why it’s the alternative you’ve been looking for: because it’s actually the more Christian party. Social conservatives will say “That’s not possible. They’re for gay marriage, abortion, and illegal immigration.” To which I would say only one of those is really a religious issue.
Gay marriage was never mentioned in The Bible, and homosexuality in general was only mentioned three times (trespassing and not eating shellfish are mentioned more times), and those three times were really more in reference to what we would consider pedophilia instead of the context of Mitchell and Cam on Modern Family. And Jesus wouldn’t have cared about illegal immigration at all, and in fact would support it, as the borders of nations are just man made things. That only leaves abortion, which is there, but let me show you the Democrat’s counter issues.
The biggest and most ignored is charity. The Bible mentions homosexuality three times but it mentions giving to the poor and taking care of the sick hundreds of times. Taking care of the poor, elderly, and sick is the main domestic platform of the Democrats (social security, medicare, medicaid, universal healthcare, any welfare program in existence). The only charity the GOP believes in is subsidies to already rich corporations and tax cuts for the already wealthy. One of the largest benefactors of subsidies are fossil fuel companies, which Jesus also wouldn’t support. The Bible mentions taking care of God’s creation (the planet) and mother nature numerous times, but the Democrats are also the party of environmentalism.
Add in that Jesus’s message was peace and nonviolence (the Democrats are the party for gun control, fewer wars, scaling back our nuclear weapons, a two state solution in Palestine, etc.) and the case for the Democrats is beginning to look pretty clear. I’m not saying you can’t be a Christian and vote for the GOP, the more hawkish party that wants to end programs that take care of the sick, the poor, and the environment, but it doesn’t help.
Social conservatives need to wake up to being used by the Republican Party and either demand change or stay at home on election day rather than be taken for granted. They can’t win without you. And maybe it will take a few elections of losing for them to realize just how much.
Spot on. Couldn’t have said it any better myself.
Absolutely, we’ve been conned by Mike Fuckabee and the ilk and it’s time to start a new party or stay home on election day.