Republican Conservatives See Religion As The 'Road To Majority'

[cbayer]

http://www.neontommy.com/news/2013/06/republican-conservatives-see-religion-road-majority

Benjamin Li | June 17, 2013 | 10:26 p.m. PDT
Staff Reporter


Reince Priebus, Gage Skidmore via Creative Commons

Republican social conservatives are trying to bolster voter support for the upcoming 2016 presidential election with a potentially polarizing issue: religious morality.

Last week, many of the Republican leaders who are likely to run in the 2016 presidential election joined Christian Evangelist activists for the "Road to Majority," a three-day conference hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition.

The speakers at the conference urged attendees to uphold their traditional values. They emphasized the need for solidary in spite of debates that have emerged in response to the far right’s instant opposition to same sex marriage and abortion laws.

“Contrary to conventional wisdom, the pro-life, pro-family and pro-marriage positions that candidates have taken and will take in the future are not a liability at the ballot box,” said Faith and Freedom Coalition founder Ralph Reed to the Associated Press. “They’re an asset.”

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[atreides1]

1. Religious morality?

That would be attacking those most in need, watching as they suffer, and having a laugh over it!

That's their "Religious morality"!!!!

[cbayer]

2. I posted this because I can't believe how completely out of touch

this group is.

Just when they should be softening some of their extreme religious positions, they decide to make them their platform.

They are so lost, imo.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Haven't they been explicitly doing this since 1980?

And Reed's been at the centre of it, pretty much the whole time.

[cbayer]

4. Yep, but it hasn't been working all that well of late.

Why they want to keep using it baffles me.

[longship]

5. That's been my opinion for two decades.

The GOP has been totally subsumed by the religious right. One does not get to be a delegate (committee person) without being an evangelical/fundamentalist Christian. I suppose they accept Mormons, too (and probably a few other sects).

The question is, how does one oppose a political party based primarily on religion? It is not currently politically correct to challenge people's religious beliefs. (That's why I do it anyway. )

[cbayer]

6. I think public sentiment has turned against them, particularly

regarding GLBT civil rights.

How does one oppose them? By voting them out.

We can always hope.

[stopbush]

7. Good. That strategy will accelerate the demise of the GOP.

They'd do better if they pulled a 180 on the religious BS and positioned themselves as the party of science and reason. At this point it's easy to dismiss every RW policy out there because the whole shebang is based on the make believe of the Bible.

[cbayer]

8. Agree about the strategy. They don't even have to position themselves as the party of

science and reason, just drop their religious political agenda.

[dimbear]

9. It's a valuable lesson to compare witling Ralph Reed to the rather wily

Reince Priebus. Reince at least recognizes the problem that the Rs are driving a dinosaur party, although he doesn't offer a way to solve that problem. Reed is just adrift in phantasy.

[cbayer]

10. And Reed appears to be remaining fairly charismatic.

Scary guy. Always has been.

[LostOne4Ever]

11. The far right is scared

That the Repugs are going to go toward the center, so they are doing everything possible to delude themselves and other conservatives to think they are NOT the problem. They ignore all evidence to the contrary and post tons of rhetoric to get the moderates to go further to the extreme with them as the fringe always does.

[cbayer]

12. Agree, they are really ignoring the facts here.

Well, it worked for them before. Maybe they just think it's going to work again.

[trotsky]

14. "They ignore all evidence to the contrary"

You bet they do, because it's tied to their religious beliefs. Religious beliefs, as we are even told here on DU, are special and don't need to be justified with things like evidence or reason. They can also be determined via "other ways of knowing," so they can blatantly contradict what we know about reality and it doesn't matter.

[WovenGems]

13. Sad

Religion has corrupted the GOP and the GOP has corrupted the Christian churches. Most Christians don't hate the poor. But because the fundies are so loud it is as if they are speaking for the whole group. And now the fundies, through the TeaParty, want to take over the whole GOP. It may end killing them both.

[cbayer]

15. I agree that right wing fundamentalists have hurt the Republicans.

And they have put a stain on religion in general.

That some in leadership think they should continue down this road baffles me.