Conservative Religious Voters Love To Be Dominated

TPM Election Central’s Greg Sargent came up with one of the best headlines ever recently: “Rudy Dominating GOP Field Among Conservatives, Religious Voters.” My first reaction was, “Well, duh.” And my second reaction was, “Well, duh!” Why would anyone be surprised that conservatives, particularly religious conservatives, like to be dominated? Okay, maybe if you’re predicting future votes based upon past behavior. But that only works if we could apply that kind of logic and expect religious conservative voters to be consistent. What we’ve seen over the past few years is the Republican need for candidates possessing a hyper-masculine, authoritarian appeal, an appeal that trumps actual character traits exhibited by candidates like Giuliani and Thompson. As long as Giuliani and Thompson SAY the rights things and make conservatives feel safe in their hyper-masculine bosoms, they don’t actually have to believe them. Logic or consistency just do not apply.

Take Giuliani. Focus on The Family’s James Dobson has already said he wouldn’t support a Giuliani candidacy, but Giuliani still leads in the polls among those voters we would most expect to follow Dobson’s dictates (southern moderate and conservative religious). Dobson also doesn’t like Romney or Thompson. Who’s left besides Huckabee? Perhaps McCain’s recent conversion talk has something to do with a possible Dobson endorsement?

Anyway, perhaps the best development to come out of all this for Democrats is that religious right activists like Dobson and Tony Perkins (Family Research Council) are considering launching a third party candidate to run against Giuliani if he ends up being the Republican nominee. I wonder if they would do the same if Romney or Thompson end up being the nominee? Dobson has already questioned their Christian-ness on several occasions thanks to Romney’s past support of gay and abortion rights, and Thompson’s general lack of professed faith. And Thompson’s recent admission about not knowing much about the Terri Schaivo case–a watershed moment for the religious right–can’t have helped.

In a few months, we are going to see just how much power men like Dobson and Perkins have over religious conservative voters, particularly in the south. I think they’ll find that voters have left them behind–feeling secure trumps all and the hyper-masculine candidates (Thompson and Giuliani) will fight it out for the religious conservative vote.

Similar Posts:

• Start Making Sense
• Editorial Separated From Reality?
• New Hampshire Republican Debate

---

Enjoy this post? Leave a comment below or subscribe to my feed. You also can sign up for email delivery by clicking here.

Subscribe via RSS or Email

Click the icon to subscribe. You know you want to.

Reno and Its Discontents Copyright © 2008 All Rights Reserved · A Reno Fabulous Media Production · Powered by WordPress and ElegantBlue