Are We To Become A Christian Fundamentalist Nation?

These aren't fringe people.

blatham, reading your post and answering it has taken me 57,0 seconds. Wait, no, 1:09:08. Gawd!

As for life, it moves today like a disgraced mamoth (1:42:49)

Like many of you last month, I watched that giant masquerade ball at Madison Square Garden--where 20,000 radicals and liberals came dressed up as moderates and centrists--in the greatest single exhibition of cross-dressing in American political history.


One by one, the prophets of doom appeared at the podium. The Reagan decade, they moaned, was a terrible time in America; and the only way to prevent even worse times, they said, is to entrust our nation's fate and future to the party that gave us McGovern, Mondale, Carter and Michael Dukakis.


No way, my friends. The American people are not going to buy back into the failed liberalism of the 1960s and '70s--no matter how slick the package in 1992.


The malcontents of Madison Square Garden notwithstanding, the 1980s were not terrible years. They were great years. You know it. I know it. And the only people who don't know it are the carping critics who sat on the sidelines of history, jeering at one of the great statesmen of modern time.

Out of Jimmy Carter's days of malaise, Ronald Reagan crafted the longest peacetime recovery in US history--3 million new businesses created, and 20 million new jobs.

Under the Reagan Doctrine, one by one, the communist dominos began to fall. First, Grenada was liberated, by US troops. Then, the Red Army was run out of Afghanistan, by US weapons. In Nicaragua, the Marxist regime was forced to hold free elections--by Ronald Reagan's contra army--and the communists were thrown out of power.

Have they forgotten? It was under our party that the Berlin Wall came down, and Europe was reunited. It was under our party that the Soviet Empire collapsed, and the captive nations broke free.

It is said that each president will be recalled by posterity--with but a single sentence. George Washington was the father of our country. Abraham Lincoln preserved the Union. And Ronald Reagan won the Cold War. And it is time my old colleagues, the columnists and commentators, looking down on us tonight from their anchor booths and sky boxes, gave Ronald Reagan the credit he deserves--for leading America to victory in the Cold War.

Most of all, Ronald Reagan made us proud to be Americans again. We never felt better about our country; and we never stood taller in the eyes of the world.

WE CAN'T JUST LEAVE IT AT THAT ---

Once again, "Face the Nation" let Pat Robertson and the Christian Coalition
(CC) off the hook.

On September 10, 1995, Bob Schieffer asked Ralph Reed on Face the Nation
(CBS) about Pat Robertson's speech to the CC's annual Road to Victory
convention two night before -- when Robertson talked about taking over the
Republican Party. Reed said that Robertson didn't really say that. Schieffer
-- instead of referencing readily available footage of Robertson's keynote
speech -- left it at that.

Today, Schieffer treated "Dr. Robertson" as some GOP elder statesman, not the
head of a highly controversial and questionable interest group -- letting Pat
talk about Dole ("a candidate I supported back in the primaries, who is Mr.
Republican"), Kemp (a "bold, dramatic" pick but sparks could fly), and
Buchanan ("He's certainly hurt Bob Dole a great deal around the country" and
"built up deep-seeded suspicions"). Robertson also said, on the issue of
abortion: "There's as much chance of a meteorite hitting this broadcast booth
as getting a constitutional amendment through this present Congress." The
only way is to reverse Roe Vs. Wade by getting three new Supreme Court
Justices.

So does the Christian Coalition have the power and the control in San Diego?
According to Robertson, the CC is "just a significant voice in the party."
The CC is "not some extremist group. All we want to do is to have Christians
sit at the table."

Schieffer's response? "And we'll just leave it at that."

What about the FEC suit? The $60,000 check to help re-elect George Bush? The
IRS non-ruling? The $2 million effort to elect CC delegates to a clearly
partisan GOP convention? The $750,000 convention control set-up? Is this how
Christians sit at the table?

(Ralph Reed did not get off so easy on today's David Brinkley Show (ABC)
despite his ability to slip and slide out of trouble in earnest. Reed was
grilled about the FEC suit ["not a grain" of truth to the allegations] and
the $60,000 check ["We are looking into it"/"Donors have a right to be
mistaken."] What happened with the platform was "a huge victory for Bob
Dole." He had no official comment on the Kemp selection.)

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

[Members of the Christian Coalition] do one thing moderates don't do. They
show up."
--Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard

KEEPING AN EYE ON THE CHRISTIAN COALITION
AT THE GOP NATIONAL CONVENTION
(Special Report from The "c.c.watch" Electronic News Service)

Thursday, August 15, 1996---Day 4

It's over! But what happened out there in San Diego?

Bernard Shaw of CNN said that the whole 1996 Republican convention was
scripted to erase the bitter memory of its Houston antecedent. That's as
good a hook as any to hang our hat on.

Sure the whole thing was a show. And the Christian Coalition et al went along
with staying out of prime time even while it labored mightily to impact the
GOP. GOP bosses may perceive the "religious right" as important or relevant
or at least a necessary evil. But they also understand that -- just like 1992
-- the majority of Americans simply will not buy a mean-spirited agenda.
Ralph Reed can say what he wants; the GOP is not a pro-life party. The show
and the message cut both ways, and the pro-lifers know it.

Indeed "c.c.watch" has reported for many months that Pat Robertson and Ralph
Reed support Bob Dole as their best hope for the election of a conservative
president and some power over the White House. In fact, on today's 700 Club,
Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed actually talked about Christian Coalition
participation in a Dole administration. So in San Diego they continued to
support Dole like good Republicans. But they also aimed to flex their
muscles and earn some political capital. They managed to band together with
Gary Bauer, Phyllis Schlafly, etc., to control the platform proceedings and,
typically, hold Bob Dole hostage over abortion language. They got their
platform and plenty of notice. What else?