{"id":547,"date":"2008-12-11T09:32:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-11T16:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/08\/christian-derangement-syndrome\/"},"modified":"2008-12-05T23:11:13","modified_gmt":"2008-12-06T06:11:13","slug":"christian-derangement-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/11\/christian-derangement-syndrome\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Derangement Syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not a disease of Christians, but of those who criticize them, Christian Derangement Syndrome is a malady to which both the Left and some on the Right may fall prey. On the Left, it is recognized as bigotry towards anyone who, for religious reasons, supports the continuation of 4000 years of tradition in keeping marriage a heterosexual thing, is pro-life, etc.\u00a0 On the Right, the symptoms are similar, but also involve a curious symbiosis with the Christians, because the secular Right NEEDS the Christians to have any power, but simply wants them to shut up and vote their way.\u00a0 Here are some observations about Christian Derangement Syndrome on the Right:<\/a><\/p>\n

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I wish that I could say that Christian Derangement Syndrome only happens from attacks on the left, but it is evident in our own party also. Those who venture on the blogs to comment on the social issues are usually met with the word “bigot” or get accused of being “what is wrong with the party.” I’m not an expert but I’m pretty sure alienating a large part of the base is not going to fix the Republican party. The values voters get railroaded because they get the finger point of who is driving away people from the party when it was Ronald Reagan himself who invited them in. “I know you can’t endorse me, but I endorse you.” The Republican party became strong because of the Christian conservative movement.<\/p>\n

Another Christian Derrangement Syndrome appeared in a post on Battleground Iowa that linked the Christian right to the liberals’ attacks on Mormonism.
\n……… (But) There have been many in the Christian conservative movement who have publicly thanked the Mormon church for their contribution to Prop 8 and think it is ludicrous at how the left is treating them.<\/p>\n

Christian Derangement Syndrome is pathetic enough coming from the left, but it is permently destructive coming from at home on the right. The conservative movement has a lot going on this next week that will determine the future of our party and our state and this syndrome will do nothing to unite the party.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ll be blunter: the Republican party was going nowhere, nowhere at all, until the Christian Evangelicals came on board and essentially took over the grass roots. While they have been less successful at penetrating the stubbornly resistant Republican party elite (they of the Ivy League and Georgetown, living lives difficult to distinguish from limousine liberals), Christian evangelicals have been the reason for every electoral success since 1980, and their disenchantment with the party the cause of every electoral defeat.<\/p>\n

Sometimes evangelicals have been less than wise in public statements about potential candidates who agree with them 80% of the time, preferring to focus too much on the 20%.\u00a0 But the party elite has only itself to blame, because it is constantly looking for ways to weaken the evangelical influence on the GOP, while somehow retaining its votes.<\/p>\n

What is needed is strong spokespersons who can hold their own in any debate and who are very well informed on a broad palette of issues, to be the representatives of the evangelicals in the party.\u00a0 These need to be people who came up not from the pulpit or academe, but from hardscrabble political survival.\u00a0 We need some Palins who can talk like Charles Krauthammer, and who are as well informed.\u00a0 (Krauthammer, who seems to like Palin quite a bit, had one word of advice for her:\u00a0 “Read.”\u00a0 I agree.\u00a0 She has enormous potential as the right KIND of person to lead the party, but needs to step up to the level of sophistication demanded of a presidential candidate, while retaining the essential orientation she has now.)<\/p>\n

I have one bit of advice for those on the Right who think they can sneer at the values of “values voters”, while retaining their vote: Get ready to be in the permanent minority, in a back to the future return to 1960’s irrelevance.<\/p>\n

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