Time magazine, June 1998:
"The G.O.P. could lose its narrow 11-seat majority in the House if it didn’t find a way to galvanize its grass-roots activists, many of whom are Christian conservatives."
New York Times, May 13, 2006:
Some of President Bush’s most influential conservative Christian allies are becoming openly critical of the White House and Republicans in Congress, warning that they will withhold their support in the midterm elections unless Congress does more to oppose same-sex marriage, obscenity and abortion.
I’m fascinated by the love-hate relationship that the religious right has with the GOP. Time and time again, Republicans cater to the religious right at election time. But as soon as they get voted in, the religious right is (thankfully) ignored for the most part.
We saw this in the presidential elections of 2004, where gay marriage was put on the table. Bush suddenly started speaking about the ridiculously-named Marriage Protection Act, ensuring that all marriages must be between a man and a woman. Homophobics and the Christian right came out enough to give Bush the narrow victory he needed.
And what happened to the legislation after the election? Nada.
The religious right is none to happy.
Dr. Dobson, whose daily radio broadcast has millions of listeners, has already signaled his willingness to criticize Republican leaders. In a recent interview with Fox News on the eve of a visit to the White House, he accused Republicans of "just ignoring those that put them in office."
Dr. Dobson cited the House’s actions on two measures that passed over the objections of social conservatives: a hate-crime bill that extended protections to gay people, and increased support for embryonic stem cell research.
In fact, the only time when Republicans supported the religious right was on Terri Schiavo, a battle which they together lost, and which left a sour taste among independents and mainstream Americans. I suspect that many Republican politicians also realized that bowing to the religious right results in a net negative approval among all voters.
The political right and the religious right are indeed strange bedfellows, both using each other to forward their own goals. However, it looks like the strained relationship may be seeing its final days.
"Final days", that is, unless the religious right gets fooled again this election cycle, just as they did in 1998 and 2004. It’ll be interesting to watch.
RELATED: The New Republic asks "Will The Christian Right Get A Spine This Year?"
ANOTHER RELATED: When did Pat Robertson get sane?
