Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Have Conservatives "Grown Up"?

Cal Thomas says so. As proof, he cites the major Republican candidates who all have divorced (save Romney) a couple times, a few having affairs. Bah. Ronald Reagan was married and divorced and remarried, Mr. Thomas. The "see conservatives are open-minded and maturing" canard is just buying the Leftist narrative again. I have never believed that the Republicans were going all Christian extremist.

While "character issues" can overlap with other concerns when considering for whom to vote, conservative evangelicals are beginning to see them as less important than who can meet the multiple challenges faced by the nation. Put it this way: if you are about to have major surgery and your only choice was a church-going doctor with a high mortality rate, or an agnostic with a high success record, which would it be? I'd choose the agnostic.
Who believes that character issues are "less important"? Character does inform decisions. Loyalty and fidelity do matter. Citizens need to weigh the whole of the character of the man or woman. Will this potential President be loyal to America? Will American's interests be served? Will the President lead from the front?

As I recall, too, President Reagan's children had variously complicated relationships with him. History's pages are filled with great leaders with personal failings. America needs a great leader. That leader will invariably be flawed. The question is whether those personal failings will harm America.

Americans, even those dreaded evangelicals, have endured imperfect Presidents throughout the years. Can everyone, especially conservative leaders, please let go of the faulty assumption that those on the Right are all "Right Wing extremists"? It's destructive. It's also not true.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only thing that matters to me regarding the divorces is, does the candidate still support the institution of marriage? Or will one man-one woman marriage be one of the first things to be deep-sixed on their frantic climb to the top?

It seems too easy for self-satisfied pols without any real solid values to casually help undermine an institution that means a lot to poorer, less successful and less smugly content people.

Otherwise I was fine with Reagan's one divorce. That just made him seem normal.

Melissa Clouthier said...

If two candidates are equally gifted, I'll pick the never divorced one. If the two candidates are wildly different, but the divorced one has the traits of a leader, guess which one I'll choose?

Guess which one Evangelicals choose? (Most of them.)

Anonymous said...

Evangelicals have a death wish. That's the only explanation.

Radio talk-show personality Hugh Hewitt backs Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination in 2008. Romney's everything an Evangelical wants in a politician, with one exception -- he's Mormon. Hewitt did an online interview over at the Christianity Today website two weeks ago, presenting Romney as an intelligent social conservative.

The comment thread for that interview was all Christianese-language denunciations of Mormonism's False Doctrine, heavily seasoned with "It Is Written!" Bible-verse proof-texts. Obviously, no Christian base support for Romney.

Do they think Christ is going to return and Rapture them between November 2008 and Inauguration Day 2009 so they won't have to bend the knee and burn the pinch of incense before Her Divine Image, the alternative that got the throne because they couldn't vote for a Mormon?