Republican Burial Grounds
My last thoughts on the election; or at least my last published thoughts for awhile. I’m going to regroup and concentrate on what is really important: the Church as the Body of Jesus Christ and what that means in terms of perspective and daily life.
Still, the election brings up some curious results. First of all, I was wrong. The Evangelical Vote was not split nearly as much as I had assumed in a previous post. In fact, the white Evangelical vote was the only constant the Republicans had in 2008. According to the Washington Post:
A Washington Post-ABC News poll released this week found McCain collecting about 68 percent of the white evangelical vote, compared to Barack Obama’s 22 percent. That number is very similar to level of support President Bush received in June 2004, when he led then Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry 65 to 30 among white evangelicals.
Also according to the National Review, the Evangelicals remained rock steady in their support of the Republican Ticket, if not John McCain himself. Their voting is probably the factor that made the election a 52-48 win for the Democrats instead of a major blowout.
White evangelical/born again christians voted McCain/Palin 74-24 in 2008, which is slightly lower than the 78-21 breakdown in 2004. But their share of the total vote was larger this time than last time (26 percent in 2008 versus 23 percent in 2004), so on balance the white evangelical/born again contribution to the Republican vote was probably about the same size as it was in 2004.
The same article noted almost consistent losses by the Republicans in all of the other major groups (save gun owners) that gave them the edge in 2004. Only the Evangelicals remained, if you excuse the expression, faithful.
Yet, as is typical of politics, it is now this grouping that may be abandoned by the Republican party in 2012. One can read rumblings in that direction in many of the post election analysis being fostered upon us by the party elite. The analysis below by David Frum is not unique. Using “Joe the Plumber” as a talking point, he suggests:
College-educated Americans have come to believe that their money is safe with Democrats – but that their values are under threat from Republicans. And there are more and more of these college-educated Americans all the time.
So the question for the GOP is: Will it pursue them? To do so will involve painful change, on issues ranging from the environment to abortion. And it will involve potentially even more painful changes of style and tone: toward a future that is less overtly religious, less negligent with policy, and less polarizing on social issues. That’s a future that leaves little room for Sarah Palin – but the only hope for a Republican recovery.
In other words, the Evangelical vote, one of the only groupings to remain solidly behind the Republican base, is about to be kicked under the bus by the Republican elites faster than Barack Obama did his grandmother and former pastor. The “values,” if they can be called that, of the college educated, are suggested as the new flagship of the Republican guard. The Evangelicals, as thanks for their support, are to be relegated to the back of the bus.
I say, if that happens, I renounce my previous post regarding Christians voting for a third party. If the Republican party does not want the Evangelicals I see no reason for them to continue their support of that party. I see no reason for them to contribute to a party that consciously rejects them and instead seeks to build upon sand.
Should that happen, the ungrateful louts will receive no support from me. Instead, I will seek the Constitution Party or perhaps save my heart some restless nights and avoid the voting process altogether.
On a related note, though at the end I lost some of my luster for Sarah Palin, I find the current savaging of her reputation by the same Republicans almost comical, if it were not so classless and crass. For example, Newsweek and other news feeds report the following issues leaked from the McCain camp following their loss at the poles.
Months of bubbling frustration with Sarah Palin from within the McCain campaign finally exploded in the wake of their ticket’s crushing defeat as Republican insiders began making embarrassing allegations about the Alaskan Governor.
Other McCain insiders told news outlets that Palin, the former mayor of small town Wasilla, Alaska, could not name the three countries in the North American Free Trade Agreement — Canada, the U.S. and Mexico — and that was from the governor who promoted negotiating experience with Canada throughout the campaign.
Unnamed McCain aides have told the media that Palin wasn’t aware that Africa was a continent, and her family behaved like a band of “Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus (an upscale American clothing store) from coast to coast.” (emphasis added)
The obvious vitriol aimed at Palin is shocking. Even if the “unauthorized” spending spree were true, the added color of calling Palin a “hillbilly” shows the disdain the Republican elites have for both the blue collar people Palin represents and Alaska for that matter. Nor can one dismiss the possibility that the McCain camp is jealous as anyone who attended the McCain rallies could see that Palin was drawing more crowds than McCain himself. Also, I cannot help but suspect that at least part of the motive for this attack on Palin was her unabashed Christian beliefs (even if I disagree with some of them).
Yet is this attack not a two-edges sword? If true; if Palin is really such a stupid and classless “bimbo” then why did the Republican’s allow her to be selected as V.P.? Does that not reflect upon them more than Palin, who merely accepted the nomination? And if it not true, then it reflects even more on the Republicans who would ruthlessly resort to character assassination of their own? In either case, it is the Republican elite who must take the blame (and lose their jobs) and not Palin. She, after all, still has a state to run.
And as for my previous complaint about Palin’s demeaning performance on SNL? View the video of her press conference below in responding to the Republican charges:
I only ask, where was this Palin during the campaign?
interesting post
—josh