Big Business is the GOP's Master, the Religious Right is its Useful Idiot

[Sandpiper]

In the past 5 years, the GOP has gone to the mat for big business every time it could.

Be it tax cuts, trying to expand free trade agreements, encouraging outsourcing, lowering environmental standards, lucrative war profiteering contracts, trying to turn social security over to Wall Street, and of course, the most recent example...

Letting Credit Card industry lawyers rewrite our bankruptcy laws.


Meanwhile, what exactly has the GOP done for the religious right, those who imagine themselves the Masters of the Party?

Abortion is still legal, the gay marriage amendment is dead as a doornail, Bush won't ban stem cell research outright, and no serious effort has been made to establish Christianity as our national religion.

And none of these things will happen either. It's more valuable to the GOP to keep these wedge issues around to whip the rubes into a frenzy than it is to do anything about them.

Maybe one day, the RR will wake up and realize that they've been taken for a ride.

[coloradodem2005]

1. I give them 10 years to realize that they have been taken for a ride.

5 if we are all lucky.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. appealing to emotions will work

because these people don't use reason. But I'd think that even the most livid fundy would be waking up to the fact that the GOP is not going to deliver what they want.

[Coastie for Truth]

3. You might want to read Tom Frank's

"What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America" which makes this point.

Rick Santorum is a master of this sleight of hand.

[midwestblue2]

4. You are right, but...

We have to find a way to connect with the religious middle. Unfortunately, we (I am very guilty of this) have used mocking humor to discuss the Religious Right movement. Perhaps, we thought it was a passing fad. The reality of it is that it has become a very powerful movement.

I am afraid that by mocking the religious right, we have let our zest get out of hand. I think the devoutly religious but perhaps socially in the center (or just right of it) have been pushed to side with the fanatically religious right because they have felt as if they had no alternative. I think a great deal of this has been caused by the language in which democrats discuss religion.

Last night I watched a film called "Saved." Set in a Christian school, saved is a satire about a girl who gets pregnant because she has sex with her Christian boyfriend to convince him he is not gay. While a good deal of the film is cleverly done, the only thing I was left with at the end is ... discussing Christianity in this way is part of the reason liberals are behind the eight ball right now.

We have to connect with this middle crowd, for whom Christ dying on the cross for their sins is no laughing matter.

I think the only way to do that is by using Christian language to counter the Religious Right. We have to talk about good intentions, we have to talk about how policies that help people are consistent with the word of Christ. We have to not be afraid to talk about wolves in sheeps clothing. I think we have to 1) talk about the Christian religion is a very respectful way; and 2) we really have to challenge the Religious Right to show us how their policies are consistent with the word of Christ.

I am not a Christian and I don't believe in God or a god, so I have a lot of work cut out for me.

I think it is the only way we can win.