Is GOP Ignoring the Conservative Christian Vote?
by Bill Fancher
September 6, 2006
(AgapePress) - - With the mid-term elections less than nine weeks away, Republican Party leaders are worried they could lose control of Congress -- and political observers feel that fear is justified.Capitol Hill conservative icon Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation says there could be huge changes ahead for the United States after the November elections. The GOP, he says, is in "deep, deep trouble." And according to Weyrich, an "anti-incumbency" attitude is sweeping the nation.
Rev. Rob Schenck, director of the National Clergy Council in Washington, DC, agrees with Weyrich's assessment, saying the Republican leaders have turned their backs on the grassroots of the Party, which is their strength. He contends Party leaders have forgotten that Christians "were really driving the revival of the Republican Party."
One case in point perhaps could be two-term U.S. Congresswoman Katherine Harris, a Florida Republican -- and professed Christian -- who on Tuesday overcame being abandoned by leaders in the GOP to claim the Party's nomination for the U.S. Senate. Fellow Republicans had criticized Harris for calling separation of church and state a lie, and for saying that not electing Christian candidates amounted to "legislating sin." Harris -- who observers say faces an uphill battle in November against the Democratic incumbent, Bill Nelson -- drew 49 percent of the vote in the Republican primary.
Instead of looking to conservatives like Harris, Schenck suggests that Republican leaders are leaning a different direction in their search for new leadership in the Party -- and they do not like depending on the "religious" voters for their wins, he adds.
"They forget and they say, 'Well, maybe it really wasn't [the religious vote]. Maybe it was something else,'" Schenck comments. "And so they start inviting leadership like Arnold Schwarzenegger and even Rudolph Giuliani, notwithstanding his leadership during the 9-11 crisis."
Giuliani and Schwarzenegger and "other Republican personalities like them represent anything but religious sensibilities," says the National Clergy Council leader.
A recent poll found that most voters believe the two major political parties have declined in their support for religious values in recent years. Schenck says that could really affect the Republican Party at the polls.
Bill Fancher, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
