The Religious Right and the Republican Coalition
Michael Brendan Dougherty dissents from conventional wisdom about the limited role of religious conservatives in the Republican coalition, arguing instead that they form the base of fiscal conservatives, natural security conservatives, and social conservatives. His conclusion:
For all the ideological examination that neoconservatives and the Tea Party have received, neither would have the clout to add a jot or tittle to America’s policy debates without the manpower, enthusiasm, and the leadership of the religious right. Christian conservatives haven’t abandoned their social issues—they’ve enfolded foreign and fiscal policy into their ongoing culture war. Their worldview has as much to say about war, healthcare reform, and tax rates as it does about unborn children and homeschooling. And everyone is listening now.
I’m not well-versed in the ways of evangelicals, but this analysis pretty well captures my sense of the conservative Catholic blogosphere. Our friends at The American Catholic, for example, tend to defend fiscal conservatism and strong military power along with conservative policies on social issues. Speaking of which, I see Crisis Magazine is back with, well, pretty much what you’d expect them to offer.
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I don’t think it is an either/or. Comprehensive conservatives (people conservative on social, economic, and national security issues) are dominant in the Republican Party. They will express their conservativism various ways depending on the situation of the moment.
National Security conservatives (or neo-cons) who were indifferent or of mixed mind on domestic issues had a strong presence under George W. Bush but are now discredited or sent ot the back of the bus. Economic conservatives, even those indifferent or of mixed mind on other issues have seen their stock rise. They have a place in the GOP, though not control.
The loss has been those who are social conservatives but moderate to liberal on other issues. They are not in positions of leadership in the GOP and many comprehensive conservatives have been gleeful about pushing them out of the party (something I find puzzling). A subset of this woudl be those working dilligently to make the Right to Life movement “smaller and more orthodox”, a project they are having great success with.
That essay makes great sense of our current political scene, but I wonder why (some) Catholics get so taken into Evangelical religio-politics?
With the converts it makes sense, but what about the cradles? Especially with someone like, say Zmirak (I don’t mean to pick on him or to learn his specific personal motivation, specifically), who writes eloquently of the lost Catholic ghetto, why do they swallow the GOP tri-cornered stool – party line whole?
fwiw i do not defend strong military power, if by which you mean the current wars in afghanistan and iraq.