Make HuffPost Your HomePage
Get Email Alerts
McCain's Christian-Right Sop
It was nice to see Bristol and Levi sitting together looking happy at the Republican convention.
Only Nixon could go to China. Maybe only the Republican/Religious Right can dispel the Christian-based shame of unwed teenage pregnancy. I've been telling evangelicals that if they're serious about stopping abortions, they ought to honor unmarried women who choose to have their babies. Maybe this is a first step.
If so, it's a great thing.
Sarah Palin herself is sending a strange message with her continuing insistence on abstinence-only sex education. It clearly didn't work with her family. A lot of women are angry about that message and panicked over the enthusiasm Palin seems to be inspiring.
Let me offer four reasons to calm down:
1. The Religious Right vote is not and never has been as strong as the media have made it seem. The 25 percent of Americans who call themselves evangelical have always been a more diverse group than pollsters acknowledge. And they are now more fractured than ever.
When it comes time to vote, they and the rest of America are very likely to vote their pocketbooks, which are far emptier than they were eight years ago. Courting the most fundamentalist of them, as McCain has been forced to could easily backfire, especially among the majority of evangelicals who aren't controlled by the Religious Right.
2. We are seeing great enthusiasm for Palin from fundamentalist Christians but voters should be wary of such reporting because mainstream reporters generally cover the usual suspects. These putative leaders command a minority of evangelical voters. Only 20 percent of self-identified evangelicals say they are supporters of the Religious Right. Surveys show that only a small percentage of them even know the names of the leaders who are so often quoted by media.
3. When that traditional white male voter whom Obama supporters fear for his racism goes into the voting booth, he will now have a difficult choice. His racism and opposition to abortion rights will be pitted against his sexism and patriotism. Is racism stronger than sexism? Hard to say. Patriotism, however, is a dominant value among the 17-20 percent of Americans who call themselves evangelicals but don't believe or act like evangelicals. That traditional white male voter will be asking himself if he wants to elect a 72-year-old cancer survivor as president and risk that McCain will die leaving a young, untested woman to be president during a time of war.
4. McCain must play to the Religious Right inside the Republican Party because they have so much strength inside the party. In the election, he's likely to sideline Palin just as Dan Quayle was sidelined. She'll preach to the Religious Right choir, while he courts everyone else. We see that strategy already in Cindy McCain's announcement that she doesn't agree with Palin on abortion.
The Religious Right is energized now, which is good for McCain. But even if they can deliver the election, he'll sell them out. Just as he had no choice at the convention, he'll have no choice as president.
Christine Wicker is the author of "The Fall of the Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside the Church." Her website is www.christinewicker.com
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Palin waited until she was almost due with Trig to tell anyone even family and co workers that she was pregnant. Many were shocked when she gave birth. She went so far out of her way to not celebrate the child inside her and to hide him away it might have been shame that guided that. She would rather see back alley abortins brought back than to give women like me the choice not to have to see another baby suffer then die while seizing. You get raped or your life in endangered as well as your fetus buck up and let the baby live or die along with you. Her church is so far out of the mainstream that they pray for gays to convert to heteros along with many beliefs long ago seen as heretic. The Palins were involved in a group trying toseeceed from the Us and somehow that isn't a question about patriotism?
No doubt Rev. Wright hurt Obama with some white voters who might have been considering voting for him. In some cases it may just serve as an excuse to fall back on latent prejudices, but I think one honestly has to ask themselves if Wright's statements should disqualify Obama, if you think he offers the best hope for our country. Would they apply the same standard to one of the other candidates.
Dick Polman wrote:
Union organizers in Michigan complain that "we're all struggling with the problem of white workers who will not vote for Obama because of his color." An aging mine electrician from Kentucky said, "I won't vote for a colored man. He'll put too many coloreds in jobs." An elderly woman in a New Jersey hair salon said she's fleeing America if Obama wins.
On the day of the Democratic presidential primary in Pennsylvania, 12% of the white Democratic voters told the exit pollsters that race mattered in their choice of candidate; of those whites, 76 percent chose Clinton over Obama. The same pattern surfaced in other states, including the key autumn state of Ohio.
If 12 percent of Democratic voters are willing to tell exit pollsters, eye to eye, that race was an important factor, to Obama's detriment, isn't it fair to assume that the real percentage (including those who kept their sentiments private) was actually higher? And what might this portend for the general election, when the white electorate will be broader, and hence significantly less liberal, than in Democratic contests?
Last June, the Washington Post-ABC News poll devised a "racial sensitivity index," to measure the varying levels of racial prejudice in the white electorate. Whites in the least-enlightened category - roughly 30% of the white electorate - favored John McCain over Obama by a ratio of 2-1.
The other thing which I hope gets taken up with a loud cry is the huge massive diss on those who volunteer and due public service. The economy is bottom barrel with the amount of jobless growing like a sorry weed with no stopping it, familes who had homes no longer do and have problems finding rentals they can afford who don't exclude them because of the size of their families. People who have houses so devalued now and are paying huge payments on them and then the tax bills don't reflect the "new low price" but the old one. These times are when the services we need and the groups who help us through volunteers and donations are the one last single thread holding too many people together. These are the people McCain/Palin and the GOP sent a big hate mail through her speech. Why people are applauding this woman when she is wanting us to let the very things long fought for give up. Back alley abortions are what she is promoting and too many women are too young to remember their friends having those and either not being able to have kids as a result of those or being killed by the "doctor" in the alley.
Governor Palin is a flash in the pan and maybe fodder for the fire soon, if she doesn't start taking questions from journalist and other professional interviewers. I think personally, sexism is much stronger than racism in the long run. But who really knows at this juncture in our history?
Governor Palin has not proven herself to anyone really. There aren't 18+ million votes in all of Alasks and that includes all the citizens, regardless of age, all the dogs, wolves, polar bears, walrus, mouse and whales. Might even include the most western provence of Canada.
She touts executve experience: Well Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and yes Richard Nixon all had executive experience as state governors of large, densely populated states and what did it get us?
War based on lies, bankruptcy levels of debt, disrespect for the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, numerous underlings convicted of criminal behavior, Congressional inquiries, tarnished foreign policy and a ruined reputation and misery [primary the Katrina disaster] at home. So much for executive experience.
We need new blood, new thinking, new energy, respect for the common person and a enewed committment to the Constitution and our agreements. Palin and indeed McCain are not the answer!
I do not think this is about race vs sexism. Sure women are excited about having a woman on the ticket and guys think she is attractive. However when it comes down to the bottom line with so much at stake in this election and the problems we face: economy, civil and human rights, Supreme Court Judges, women's rights, the environment, war, energy, so on and so forth, how likely is it that voters will ignore those things?
Wait until women find out Palin favours teaching creationism and abstinence only and believes Iraq is a holy war, etc... they will think twice before voting for McCain-Palin.
McCain nor Palin are interested in the people. McCain's ideology is the same as Bush and Cheney's. Furthermore Palin is just as prone to anger as McCain. We do not need two hot-heads in the WH muchless one.
The future of: our country, the world community, our children, grandchildren and their children is by far much more important than voting for 2 mean-spirited, sarcastic candidates -- one who is embroiled in investigations for abusing her power -- plan to keep the status quo in-tact.
McCain may campaign on shaking up Washington, but a tiger does not change its stripes after 26 years in Washington. And anyone who thinks differently is not using common sense. This election is not about racism vs sexism, not this time.
It is unfortunate that the Huffington Post's policy is to hold comments for hours so that participants cannot debate the issues in real time (more or less). It would be preferable to allow comments to pass through immediately and then cull any comments that are objectionable. Whatever.
Riley85 says that the reason "traditional white voters" (of what party?) will not vote for Obama is not because of his skin color, but because of his association with Reverend Wright. Last time I heard, Rev. Wright is a black liberation theology minister of a predominantly black church in Chicago, with alleged ties to Farrakhan. So, white voters cannot connect with Obama because the minister of his church is a black man that preached about his view of racism in America. But, their lack of support for Obama has nothing to do with the fact that he too is black? Just his association with a black minister?
Sorry, I cannot buy that argument (and nor should you). How about Sarah Palin's marriage to a man that has openly been a member of a political party that wants to secede from the United States? How does that compare to the out of text quotes taken from Rev. Wright? Should traditional white voters feel that they cannot connect with Sarah Palin because of this? Perhaps, they should, but I bet that they won't. Like I said, racism trumps everything, including sedition.
I am a lifelong Dem - my daughter is an Evangelical, under the sway of her husband and his parents, who are rabid Republicans.
I asked her the other night what she thought of Palin - she said she didn't see the speech, but "everybody at church was raving about her."
I acquainted her with just some of the laundry list of Palin's record as a pork-barrel princess and outright liar on the "bridge to nowhere" nonsense, and my daughter was shocked.
She is a young 30-something, raising a small child as a stay-at-home Mom, as are all her friends. They think politics and "news" is tainted, is "of the world" and to be avoided.
We better each get some more Dems registered and fired up to vote. I will sink into a depression from which I can't imagine recovery if this pitbull and corrupt old man are elected leaders of our (once) great country!
I just want to comment on the "abstinence only" idea. As a former high school and middle school teacher, and as dad, I can tell you that the the message the kids get is to "stay a virgin." But then they don't get any education to back that up. What has happened is that the kids figured out their are other ways to have sex but stay a virgin - oral and anal sex. I started teaching about 12 years ago. Even by then, most boys, and a lot of girls, considered oral sex to be just a little past kissing. That shocked me a little. But what really blew me away was their attitiudes on anal sex. We never even discussed this when I was a kid, but now it's fairly common. To them it's just a safe alternative. My daughter is in high school. She knows many girls who do it and wear their purity rings with pride.
What I don't get is the idea that sex ed is going to "give them ideas!" Too late for that. The ideas are allready there. The thing education does is take the mystery and fun out of subject. And it takes away the notion that nobody knows what they are doing.
And as a side note to parents - if your kid is going through a lot of Germ-ex, they may be drinking it. It's like 120 proof whiskey.
Why don't Obama supporters get it after all of this time? His skin color will not be the major reason that traditional white voters won't vote for him. It is that they cannot connect with him or relate to him. I may be wrong but I think it all started with Rev Wright. He lost momentum after that came out.
America saw how he willingly spent 20 years of his life---then tried to deny he ever knew about those sermons. It wasn't believable. Those pictures of Rev Wright cursing America was powerful and unforgettable.
I just don't think the voters in small town America trust Obama and they never will no matter how hard he tries. They will go with the devil they know--McCain/Palin
Rupert Murdoch posing as riley85. There you go again. Argggh
I think that if Palin is suppose to appeal to mothers that it wil fail. I think that when the mother of a 16 year old girl learns that Palin voted to have only abstinece programs in school and then her daughter ends up pregnant and is marrying the father of her child AT 17. Its going to give the pause before voting for her because her daughter is and I know folks say leave the family out of this in this instance YOU CANT. She is saying I'm for abstince only in shcool I dont support giving teenagers information about birthcontrol and here is my daughter pregant at 17. She is the poster child for why abstince programs only dont work. And I gurantee most parent of a 16 year old girl would rather they have sex and protect themselves than them being taught to abstain and then going out and get pregnant and then having no access whatsover to abortion. So that 16 year old's life is already determined things like education will have to be put on hold if they get the chance to even go to college. TO present Bristol Palin as some success story is troubling to me becuse its NOT a success story its a teenager saddled with a baby. Imagine parents of 14 year old 15 year old 16 year old when they go into that booth. I doubt they want their daughters life to be over at sixteen.
Carol
I once debated choice in High School, and the other side brought in their disgusting "pictures". I won, and when it was over the meanest, most "red-neck" girl in my school came up to me and thanked me. She said she had "friends" who had had an abortion, and she was glad I won.
I wonder how many of the so-called "wal-mart moms" could have the same story as that young lady. The 3 R Wal-Mart going, sometimes church going, Nascar watching moms I know have all either had an abortion, or have a sister who has. In the privacy of the voting booth, I wonder what they will think of Gov. P and her "holier than thow" attitude.
The polls are suspicious. The Evangelical base that elected Bush including most devote christians, white, black and Latinos. Not any more, Palin has consolidated the white evangelicals but the others cannot be counted on. Remember Bush also got close to 50% of the Latino votes. Obama has a solid rock of 66% of the Latino votes. With the right swing of the GOP, the base is solid but shrinking to actual size.
Change is coming this is not a horse race.
Look, as a woman, I support the idea of a female president. However, I am not fooled or taken in by some of my female colleagues in their attempt to equate our concerns with the concerns of the descendants of slaves. At the same time, I do not believe that you should vote for Obama because he is black. His blackness for me is a personal characteristic, like white hair is for John McCain. No, I (as I hope all intelligent white female voters) will base my vote on the issues and not on some cynical political ploy.
Ah, there's the rub! R's can't win on the issues.
Some have cynically attempted to equate the voting preferences of black people with those of these disaffected white Democratic female voters (i.e., black people support Obama because he is black). However, early data from the election disclaim this conclusion. Black support for Obama was slow to develop (perhaps that is why Bill Clinton campaigned so hard for HIllary in the South as the "first black president"). But even if this assertion were correct, is it then correct to equate white Democratic women's support for Palin with blacks' support of Obama? There are several reasons why the answer to that question is no, not the least of which is that blacks who support Obama AGREE with Obama's policies and believe that an Obama presidency will help the plight of black people in America. Will the white female Democrats (life-long in many cases) who vote for McCain do it because they agree with his policies and believe that a McCain presidency will help the plight of women in America?
Loading comments…
Posted September 5, 2008 | 03:40 PM (EST)