Crooks and Liars has an interesting video up. Tucker Carlson made extremely clear to Matthews what “Republican elites feel about the Extreme Christian Right”.
From the transcript:
CARLSON: It goes deeper than that though. The deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power. Everybody in…
MATTHEWS: How do you know that? How do you know that?
CARLSON: Because I know them. Because I grew up with them. Because I live with them. They live on my street. Because I live in Washington, and I know that everybody in our world has contempt for the evangelicals. And the evangelicals know that, and they’re beginning to learn that their own leaders sort of look askance at them and don’t share their values.
MATTHEWS: So this gay marriage issue and other issues related to the gay lifestyle are simply tools to get elected?
CARLSON: That’s exactly right. It’s pandering to the base in the most cynical way, and the base is beginning to figure it out.
This seems to be quite logical to me. Goldwater conservatives, paleoconservatives, etc. cannot possibly agree with the, relatively, extreme views from Christian Right and especially not with the influence of Christian Right within the Republican Party. Sure, they help the Republicans win elections, but because Republican leaders have to ‘pander to the base’, they are also giving the Republican Party a particular image. An image (other) conservatives will – at least to a degree – despise.
Shakesspeare’s Sister adds that, in the end though, the leaders of Christian Right could not care less:
Surely the conservative evangelical leaders like Falwell, Robertson, and Dobson, who dutifully lead their flocks to the GOP over and over in every election, know—and have known for quite some time—exactly what the game is. They serve as conduit for the “values” message and talk up the GOP, who then reward them with legislation that continues to make religion once of the best businesses in America…
Evangelical leaders aren’t hurting for a return on their investment; it’s the voters, the people who genuinely expect a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, who are waking up to the reality that they’ve been suckered.
As a liberal conservative and as a Christian, I cannot say that I have a lot of sympathy for ‘Christian Right’.
As a Christian: they should take the Christian part out of ‘Christian Right: that would make much more sense as far as I am concerned: “let him who is without sin cast the first stone” for instance, seems to be a Biblical truth, conveniently ignored by them.
As a European liberal, of course, I simply oppose all attempts to legislate religion.
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