Why the Republican Party Is Dying
Here is a thought experiment, especially for those of you who are pro-life. The next time you get your oil drained or your tooth filled, ask the mechanic or the dentist whether or not they are pro-life. I hope you have the integrity to take your business elsewhere if they don't give you an answer you like.
This, in short, is what has happened to the Republican Party. It has been hijacked by Christianists-- people who wear the title of Christian to advance political goals.
Christianists have populated both parties. On the left, many of the early civil right leaders and feminists were devout Christians. Many prominant abolitionists, war protestors, and union leaders were also Christians.
However, something happened on the Christian right that didn't happen on the Christian left. And, to understand this, we have to got back to 1976 with the origin of the Moral Majority. Jerry Falwell rejected the traditional Baptist principle of the separation of church and state to raise awareness of social issues. These planks included rejection of homosexual civil rights, anti-communism, anti-feminism, and pro-life.
Although Falwell disbanded the Moral Majority in 1989, it gave rise to a network of political active conservative churches across the country. The Christian left never had an analagous religious-political structure. With the perspective of history, it is clear that this confederation of political active churches was a Trojan horse that has almost succeeded in bringing the Republican Party to its knees.
Republican politics became victim to a king of Gresham's Law, where the most inflamatory and the most intolerant conservatives marginalized and then eradicated the socially moderate, fiscally conservative wing of the party. The Christianists allied themselves with the neo-conservative internationalists to create Christian triumphantism-- an ideology of Christianity as a universally prevailing political force rather than a universally prevailing moral force. And the rest is history.
The Republican Party is now a twitching shell of itself from twenty years ago and the prognosis is grim. The only chance for the Grand Old Party to rise as a potent political force is to cast the preachers out of the temple and bring back the money changers. A party dominated by moral issues irrelevant to the majority of the electorate is surely a recipe for failure.
This, in short, is what has happened to the Republican Party. It has been hijacked by Christianists-- people who wear the title of Christian to advance political goals.
Christianists have populated both parties. On the left, many of the early civil right leaders and feminists were devout Christians. Many prominant abolitionists, war protestors, and union leaders were also Christians.
However, something happened on the Christian right that didn't happen on the Christian left. And, to understand this, we have to got back to 1976 with the origin of the Moral Majority. Jerry Falwell rejected the traditional Baptist principle of the separation of church and state to raise awareness of social issues. These planks included rejection of homosexual civil rights, anti-communism, anti-feminism, and pro-life.
Although Falwell disbanded the Moral Majority in 1989, it gave rise to a network of political active conservative churches across the country. The Christian left never had an analagous religious-political structure. With the perspective of history, it is clear that this confederation of political active churches was a Trojan horse that has almost succeeded in bringing the Republican Party to its knees.
Republican politics became victim to a king of Gresham's Law, where the most inflamatory and the most intolerant conservatives marginalized and then eradicated the socially moderate, fiscally conservative wing of the party. The Christianists allied themselves with the neo-conservative internationalists to create Christian triumphantism-- an ideology of Christianity as a universally prevailing political force rather than a universally prevailing moral force. And the rest is history.
The Republican Party is now a twitching shell of itself from twenty years ago and the prognosis is grim. The only chance for the Grand Old Party to rise as a potent political force is to cast the preachers out of the temple and bring back the money changers. A party dominated by moral issues irrelevant to the majority of the electorate is surely a recipe for failure.
Labels: GOP
posted by My Mall and News at
6:11 PM
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