Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

Religion and politics in ’08

Leaving aside the Romney question, which will (I’m sure) provoke all sorts of animated discussion and speculation before and after he delivers his big speech on faith and politics, there’s plenty to think about heading into ’08. Dan Gilgoff offers a bit of a preview, pointing to a brawl brewing on the Democrats’ side of the aisle and a challenge, on the Republicans’ side, to find room at the table for conservative evangelicals and everyone else they need to win elections. I’m betting that Gilgoff is right that the 78% share of the evangelical vote that GWB won in 2004 is unlikely to be repeated, and that even 70% would be hard to hold in the face of concerted Democratic courtship (led, for example, by a sweet-talking Barack Obama, who will surely eventually be subject to real scrutiny).

To be on the winning side, both conservative evangelicals and liberal secularists have to be willing to live with the proverbial half a loaf. In that regard, I think of the 2006 result as salutary and instructive. (But let me hasten to add that I continue to lie awake nights worrying about the fate of the Supreme Court and of our struggles against those dedicated to our destruction, by which I don’t mean Nancy Pelosi and company.)

Discussions - 1 Comment

This
might be encouraging to the Romney fans. Perhaps it is an indication of how the faith issue will go. Is this the kind of "half a loaf" you were thinking about?

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