The Anatomy Of Republican Cataclysm and Democratic Victory

As a lifelong Republican (until I re-registered as an independent voter in 2006), as someone who in the 1970s and eighties -- along with my late father Francis Schaeffer -- was a part of the formation of the religious right, as someone who worked to get John McCain elected in the 2000 Republican primaries, as someone who avidly supports Obama for the presidency... let me give you my two cents worth on the eve of the Republican defeat and Democratic Party victory as to how and why this happened.

The Republicans and Democrats both have a lunatic fringe. The far left and far right always make more noise than their actual numbers represent. Sensible leaders of the major political parties discount that noise and govern more or less from the center. When the fringe gains too much sway and tilts the party to far to the right or left, the party suffers defeat.

Since the 1970s and in particular the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling on abortion, the vocal minority of the far right of the Republican Party has fused with the far right of the evangelical movement. The evangelicals (and I spent my life as one until 1985 when I dropped out), are not a monolithic block. The evangelicals just like everyone else, are all over the map ideologically and politically. However, as with the fringes of the political parties the evangelical movement has its own far right and ultra-fundamentalist wing. These folks have taken over the power centers of American Protestant evangelical religion.

The so-called mainline denominations have been in retreat since the 1950s and all the sound and fury has been coming from fundamentalists of various denominational affiliations. To understand what has happened to the Republican Party you have to understand that the fundamentalists have, by and large, taken over the evangelical movement which itself then fused with the Republican Party.

Aside from the fact that in Obama the Democrats have the best presidential candidate to run since FDR, the reason the Republicans are about to be utterly rejected by the majority of American voters is because of what the Republican Party has been trying to do since the Reagan era: appease its far, far religious right.

The latest episode has been the nomination of Sarah Palin as a vice presidential candidate. The only reason she was nominated was to throw a sop to the fundamentalist/evangelical/religious right, the so-called base without which and no Republican can win these days, or so it has been thought.

The focus of the Republican Party on economic and foreign policy issues, the economy, military preparedness and a generally libertarian laissez-faire view of the world has, as it were, been replaced by the "religious ethics" of what I'll call the fabled SNL Church Lady's older, stricter, uglier, dumber and terminally self-righteous big sister. This humorless desiccated hag has remade the Republican image as the anti-everything party.

The Republican Party has lost the hearts and minds of reasonable Americans of all faiths and ideologies. Independent voters, young people, black people, Hispanics... the list goes on, and now includes even most white men (like me), most white women, in fact most everybody has left the Republicans. Who stayed? The sorts of people who believe that the Earth is 6000 years old, that dinosaurs roamed the Earth with men, that Senator Obama is "a Arab," that President Bush was correct in thinking that it was "God's will" that we go to war with Iraq, that torture of prisoners is OK, that Senator Obama is a Muslim, that the problem with the American economy is what little remains of government regulation of our banking and financial institutions, that freedom equals being allowed to go to gun shows where an eight-year-old is allowed to fire an Uzi submachine gun and shoot himself in the head...

The choice for the Republicans, in the face of their impending overwhelming defeat, is clear: is the Republican Party going to become the permanent refuge for stupid people or will it change and stop catering to the village idiots?

One reason the country is turning to Senator Obama is that we believe Senator McCain has sold his soul to the know-nothing lowest common denominator Republican/fundamentalist/far right crowd. The very people he was denouncing in the 2000 primaries as "agents of intolerance" are the people he tried to appease by nominating Palin, a person who has been associating with the Alaska secessionist party, someone who had a public exorcism performed over her, to protect her from "witches," a woman who questioned whether human beings have anything to do with global warming and who believes in the imminent return of Christ, and is a card-carrying member of one of the wackiest offshoots of America's melding of religion and politics: the so-called Christian Zionist movement that backs the State of Israel, not for political but for tangled religious reasons to do with the return of Christ, the Rapture and the "End Of Days." This is who McCain chose! And this is the woman who has been hailed as the new "Esther" by the fundamentalists who believe that she will do for fundamentalist Christians what the Old Testament Biblical hero Esther did for the people's of ancient Israel; be ordained by God to save them!

It has taken an economic collapse, more than 4000 American war dead in an unnecessary war (Iraq), a second war we seem to be losing (Afghanistan), a meltdown of our educational system, the besmirching of our name internationally, eight years of being "led" by a born-again president who turned out to be literally unfit to govern, to finally wake the American people up to the fact that turning your government over to people motivated by fundamentalist religious conviction and/or motivated to appease fundamentalists, is an extraordinarily bad idea.

Combine all of the above with the fact that another cranky and in a way even weirder and more dangerous extreme right minority, the neoconservatives, has been cynically using and abusing the religious Republican fringe and fundamentalist base for their own purposes, and you complete the picture of disaster. The aim of the neoconservatives has been to extend and empower what they view as the imperial "destiny" of United States as interpreted through the lens out of American exceptionalism.

The neoconservatives are too worldly to believe that God has ordained American exceptionalism but they are happy to tell the rubes whatever they want to hear. The neoconservatives are our American equivalent of the old-style European empire builders such as Napoleon, who were glad to use popes or priests to bless their secular conquests when it was useful. The neoconservatives believe in power for power's sake and would love to live in a world where everyone besides the United States is reduced to being as powerless as Belgium.

Most Americans do not want to live in a country perpetually at war with the world nor in a nation whose policies are driven by literalistic Biblical interpretation or insane imperial ambition. And that's why, amongst many other reasons, the Republicans will not only lose but have destroyed themselves for the foreseeable future.

In becoming a party of rubes, the party of eternal war (and therefore eternal debt!), the party that despises the big cities, hates the universities, says that one part of America is more patriotic than other parts, in fact hates (and fears) anyone not like them or worse yet, is suspicious of anyone smarter or more educated than they are, the Republicans have doomed themselves to be the party of stupid, fearful and close-minded bigots. And since most Americans are not stupid or bigots and would rather be led by educated, informed and worldly wise leaders the Republicans now have a choice: rebuild the Republican Party catering to the best America has the offer or disappear.

The rest of us can just count ourselves lucky, dare I say blessed, that Senator Obama has emerged as our next likely president at the very time when what we need most is a reasonable, intelligent, kind, and unflappable leader not driven by ideology but by the desire to govern well and with compassion. The Republicans have led us to the brink. May I say without any any intended irony; thank God for Obama.

Frank Schaeffer is the author of CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back. Now in paperback

Comments

[jayburd]

Thanks again, Frank, for another well reasoned and written piece.

Now, I would appreciate it if you would kindly eviscerate James Dobson for this abomination:

http://focusfamaction.edgeboss.net/download/focusfamaction/pdfs/10-22-08_2012letter.pdf

[CIgarCityGirl]

According to this letter from the future, homeschoolers and their education fearing families are moving to New Zealand and conservative radio shows like Limbaugh and Dobson are off-the-air. The Supreme Court is more liberal and the Bush Administration has been punished.

How is any of THAT a bad thing?

[whit4brains]

Sounds good to me :-)

[jayburd]

"Republicans now have a choice: rebuild the Republican Party catering to the best America has the offer or disappear."

Amen. I've been saying this for months.

[nycwerewolf]

Another eloquent post! Thank you, Mr. Schaeffer.

[GwMckay]

Selah!!

Well said Frank, Well said.

[AdamX]

Don't count your chickens! WE HAVEN'T WON YET!!!!!!! Even worse - we could still lose. Instead of patting ourselves on the back, let's go get some folks to VOTE.

We need to win. We haven't. Let's go to work and stop gloating about what hasn't yet happened.

[democratbob]

Frank,

My wife and I are former Fundamentalists who have come to see the truth, in large part because of the actions of our current president. We were huge fans of your father and attended the seminar you all held in Philadelphia back in Aug or Sep of 1979.

I say all this because we are very strong Obama supporters, not because we disagree with McCain (we strongly do) but because we believe that Obama is the last, best hope to keep our nation prosperous and free. The Republicans have been moving us away from freedom and prosperity at an alarming rate.

I have tried to talk to my parents and brother who are probably going to vote for McCain even though they don't like him, because they are scared to death of Obama. I saw them less than 2 weeks ago, and they were willing to let me talk about Obama (but not too much) but when I mentioned Palin and how much she scares me with her philosophy and eternal unpreparedness, my Dad said, "We'll agree not to talk about this any more." Breaks my heart, but the fundamentalist Christians do not believe in the truth; they only believe in what they want to be true.

Thanks again for expressing yourself so eloquently. It does a former Evangelical (still a Christian) who sometimes feels rather alone.

[cgr]

Another excellent, insightful article from you, Mr. Schaeffer. Thank you. You put the puzzle pieces together so well; the picture becomes clear of how the Republican party has broken. The subtle, unspoken, under-the-radar manipulation by the neocons of "rubes" to further their agenda came out of the shadows with Palin's selection, into the bright glare of public scrutiny. The intolerance and mindlessness of the extremist Christian segment of our society that we've carelessly just dismissed as nuts but harmless has been thrown into the headlines where it's scared everyone silly...and scared us straight. Bigotry and intolerance exposed.

We've been faced daily in the campaign news coverage with clear evidence of the differences between tolerance and bigotry, between simple truth and sneering lies framed as innuendo. Across the country people who formerly, often without even realizing it, still carried old racist bias, have found it no longer important at all, and have become uplifted, resonating to what is better, finer, truer in leaders whatever their color, religion, background.

In a goofy sense, McCain Palin have served more than their "base"in this election process; they're revealed the craven element of the Republican party and given us as individuals, as a nation, a challenge/opportunity to elevate the level of awareness, consciousness and conscience. And I'm heartened to see we're rising to the task. Shown the ugliness, we KNOW, we're better than that, and are better for aspiring to be ever better.

[bdaved]

I think the Republan Party missed its last chance when John McCain got quitting mad instead of fighting mad in South Carolina in 2008. That's when he really had a chance to put country first.

[bdaved]

2000, that is. It's taken me 'til October to get this year right and now I don't know when to quit.

[Chuck Lasker - Huffpost Blogger]

The Republican Party is dead.

http://conservativesforobama.blogspot.com/2008/10/republican-party-is-dead.html

[Gib]

Not bad for an ex-Republican. ;-)

[kellygrrrl]

They Jumped the Shark!

Bush drove millions of sane people from the Republican Party
Palin is driving millions of sane people from the ChristianAgenda

[access2narnia]

Yes! Amen! Thank God for Obama and the courage to stand up against such vicious attacks.

[vegas9999]

Wonder why it is much easier to spot those far lefties then it is those far righties?

[DarkWitch]

It helps if one opens one's eyes and uses one's brain ;-)

[gwenmand]

And thanks to independents who are not so stuck in the partisan mud that we're making decisions based on what will take the country forward, not on what party should have hegemony. Hopefully, the Democrats won't interpret their impending victory as carte blanche support either. The independent movement is strengthening because millions have learned that promises from either party are rather cheap.

Gwen
www.independentvoting.org

[MPeter]

Frank, you are an absolutely amazing person. I read and have read every article you have posted here. You are a smart, clearheaded, fear, just, kind and simply incredible human being. I used to hate Republicans but after finding you, reading your stuff and just assessing the calmness and soberness you infuse in your analysis, I am glad you are on Obama's side. Thank you for your honesty; thank you for your courage and indeed, your intellect. You are a great American and a great citizen of the world. May God Bless You always!