"Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, who received piles of hate mail during the Presidential campaign for questioning Sarah Palin's credentials, has written a column for the Washington Post which also seems likely to court internecine criticism. The piece, entitled, "Giving Up on God," makes a sustained argument that the GOP's courting of the religious vote above all has led the party dangerously astray.

" "As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.


Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D.

I'm bathing in holy water as I type.

To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh.

Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth -- as long as we're setting ourselves free -- is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that."" Kathleen Parker

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Will the Republican Party have to quit catering to Christian Evangelicals and Fundamentalists in order to resurrect itself from the dead?

IF not that, what?

I doubt they will... Money will rule at the end of the day and these christian organisations have plenty of it to throw at politicians to fight their cause.

The GOP lost because the leadership of the party kept sticking its fingers in conservatives' eyes.

When/if the GOP comes back to a conservative position, it will make a comeback.

If it doesn't, then it will become history and another party will come along. Maybe the Constitution Party.

BTW, what would a left-wing columnist know about grassroot conservatism anyway?

I often enjoy Parker's columns but she's been playing the martyr a bit too much here. She's a columnist, she's going to get emails, she needs to get over it. Besides, she's flat wrong on this one. McCain lost for any number of reasons but it wasn't for playing to those "oogedy-boogedy" Christians. He did not run an "oogedy-boogedy" right-wing campaign. Far from it... and that was the problem.

She is a Conservative columnist who is concerned about the future of the Republican Party.

The lack of true fiscal, as well as social conservatives is what has done it.

McCain is not a true conservative. Immigration, cap and trade, hands off Obama's true leftist agenda? Pandering to bailouts?

As well as the success of the surge in Iraq.

You give the evangelicals too much credit - how about the economy? The youth vote, the black vote, the guilty white vote?

It is a column from a worried Conservative... try to read for content, please.

Thank you, :)

Yeah - I read your OP and question, and have dismissed the idea that the Christians are the reason for the losses earlier this month.

Parker became unhinged in her hatred of Sarah Palin. There were a few others also that jumped ship ;David Broder;George Will ;the Buckley kid.
All of them more concerned with their place in the Washington Sunday talk show and cocktail circuit than in their party. They were the ones who liked McCain because he was a reach across the aisle moderate yada yada .
My read on the election results is that the McCain campaign did not reach hard enough to the base .The results show that the difference was how many conservative voters who rallied for President Bush in 2004 decided to sit this one out.

She is a Conservative columnist who is concerned about the future of the Republican Party.

Ah, so you do read my posts. Parker is a moderate, she's no conservative. It's the moderates that are "concerned" the Republican party has shot itself in the foot by courting evangelicals. Conservatism still wins, and that's what the GOP has abandoned.

Hello Choux:

No matter who she is, I think she's right. There was a religious shift in the country during the last quarter of the 20th Century, that the Republicans took advantage of... But, now it's shifting the other way and the Republicans haven't shifted with it.

I think policies that dumb down the public (teaching creationism), that keep groups from enjoying civil rights (gay marriage), that challenge science because of religion (stem cell research), are NOT policies that forward the Republican party.

It DOES appear that the new Republican idea is to be MORE conservative instead of less. I think that's exactly what they should do. Maybe they'll be relevant in 2076. Bwa, aha ha ha.

excon

PS> By the way, Barry Goldwater, the founder of the modern Conservative movement AGREES with ME!! He doesn't agree with YOU (Christians, that is)!!

An indicator of this is the fact that McCain's reception was lukewarm at best by the conservative base and no one really paid him much mind unless it was to link him to Bush and ageism.

Then Palin was chosen, and all of a sudden there were as many passionate proponents as opponents as her. Then comparison's to Obama - the top of the ticket.

Then in the typically left of center city that I live in McCain/Palin and Sarah lawn signs and bumper stickers started cropping up as much as on the Obama / Biden side.

Also Prop 8 in California passed - a conservative measure won in one of the most liberal states.

This is evidence that a conservative might have pulled off an upset, despite a crumbling economy.

Ex

All the science has proven in stem cell research is that Bush and religious conservatives are right.

All the past years advances have been made in ADULT cells induced to pluripotentiality.
Embryonic stem cell research has been scientifically unsuccessful.

Hello again, in:

It isn't a matter of whether the policies are right, and they're not. But, it's a matter of whether the Republican party should hang their hats on them...

Of course, if the Republican party would stick to what the Republican party USED to be, I'd be a Republican. I LOVE Barry Goldwater. Mr. Conservative. He's MY GUY.

excon

It doesn't matter if the policies are right? So you are in favor of wrong policies?

And they are not right? What is your proof?

Census statistics bear out the fact that the traditional nuclear family is the best bet against poverty. Divorce causes a lot of financial difficulties. Single parenthood is not good for children or prosperity.

These are all conservative/ religious isssues that are correct.

And regarding stem cell research [ not embryonic ] Bush and religious conservatives are right and are on the side of science.

Pluripotent Stem Cells Shown To Generate New Retinal Cells Necessary For Vision, Study Finds (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081120210853.htm)

This is not about ideaology, but about results.

Hello again, in:

The question isn't whether Republican policies are right. The question is whether the Republicans should STICK to them...

Leastways, that's how I read it.

excon

I love how you guys have been so good as to tell us what we need to do to get back on track, which naturally is to be more like you. That is the ideal situation, right? For you anyway.

Let's not really challenge our kids to think for themselves and consider the defects in Darwinism. It's irrefutably fact by consensus even though not one scientist can explain how it all really came to be out of nothing. God forbid that anyone should think men and women are different, that gay marriage can never be equal to heterosexual marriage or to actually assess value to the life of an unborn child.

Conservatives, especially evangelical conservatives, don't deserve a political home or so much as a voice because well, their beliefs, values and ideas are irrelevant anyway. Only when the GOP completes its transformation leftward can this country represent the liberal values, the tolerance and diversity our founding fathers intended, right?

Let's see : McCain, rejected the religious right and would not campaign on its issues, lost an election soundly.

President Bush,accepted the religious right and campaigned on its issues, won two elections in a row.

In my humble opinion ;what killed the Republicans was that religious and non-religious Republicans could not help themselves from spending line drunken Democrats.

Those low brows, gorillas and oogedy-boogedy types ,must have been a majority in California where Prop.8 passed by a large majority.

Hope the Rockefeller country club Republicans enjoy 4 years of Obamanation socialism . Maybe then they won't be as picky about who they hang around with .

As for Parker ;she needs to stop pretending she's a martyr for writing deliberately controversial columns, which predictably get a response. But look at it from her perspective. So long as she takes these postions she is guaranteed her op-eds get published in the Washington Compost. She was only a NRO
Columnist before her new found fame.

Those low brows, gorillas and oogedy-boogedy types ,must have been a majority in California where Prop.8 passed by a large majority.

Lets' see, 70 percent of black voters voted for Prop 8. What does that make them?

I love how you guys have been so good as to tell us what we need to do to get back on track, which naturally is to be more like you. Hello again, Steve:

I'm just trying to help you compete. Dude, you were too easy the last time.

excon

Lets' see, 70 percent of black voters voted for Prop 8. What does that make them?Hello again, Steve:

Uhhhh, black homophobes... What's your point?

excon

Hello again, Steve:

I'm just trying to help you compete. Dude, you were too easy the last time.

And I'm saying if everyone is alike there is no competition.

And I'm saying if everyone is alike there is no competition.Hello again, Steve:

K. Then let's talk about taxes and big government. Let's talk about civil rights. Let's talk about the "Bush Doctrine". Let's talk about medicare and/or socialized medicine. Let's talk about Iran and Israel. Let's talk about stuff like that.

But, the religious stuff is a non starter. Seems to me the Constitution kills you. But, you guys go ahead...

excon

Let's talk about stuff like that.

We have and we do.


But, the religious stuff is a non starter. Seems to me the Constitution kills you. But, you guys go ahead...

I wasn't discussing religious stuff and we've had the "Constitution kills ya" discussion. You think it does and I think it doesn't. But, there's a common misconception about the role evangelicals want for religion, actually it's left-wing fear mongering about it (but they don't engage in fear mongering), which says we want that theocracy, we want to impose our values on everyone else and that's BS plain and simple. If anything, it is the other side that wants to impose their values on us and that's exactly what started this fight in the first place, an all out assault on our values.

If anything, it is the other side that wants to impose their values on us and that's exactly what started this fight in the first place, an all out assault on our values.Hello again, Steve:

If doing what the Constitution says is an imposition of your values, then you better get better values. Cause I think the values espoused in the Constitution are better than yours.

Besides, I really don't think you embody Christian values either. Now, I'm not a Christian, but from what I understand about Christianity, it's far more charitable than YOUR interpretation would have it be.

But, we'll talk about that some more, I'm sure.

excon

You've gotten a little snippy here lately, ex. I never claimed to embody Christian values but thanks for telling me I don't... and that I need better values and a more charitable Christianity. Again, I love it when outsiders interpret our needs and beliefs for us. I don't think there's anything wrong with my values or my 'interpretation' of the constitution. I'm not the one adding things to it - or Christianity - that aren't there.

Hello again, Steve:

Uhhhh, black homophobes.... What's your point?

excon

So those who voted against gay marrige are automatically homophobes?

So those who voted against gay marrige are automatically homophobes?Hello in:

Pretty much. What would you call 'em?

excon

Those who believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. What is so homophobic about that.

By your reasoning those who want same sex mariiage are heterophobes ;)

Hello again, in:

What's racist about having separate but equal schools? Everything!

excon

How did you go from marriage to racism?

If that where the case, then why did 70 % of black voters, probably 90% of whom voted for Obama, vote against gay marriage?