“Christian Conservatives Consider Third-Party Effort”

 

Source:  The New York Times - 9/30/2007

Thoughts: I am a fond believer in the need of more substantial political parties in the United States. For too long, the Republican and Democratic parties have dominated our politics to the point where the society is forced to align themselves one way or another in order to succeed in politics. As a result, you find yourself with politicians who are members of one party, but have personal views on key issues that belong in the opposing party. Rudy Giuliani is one of those politicians.

Because Giuliani is not for a ban on most (if not all) abortions, he is chastised by some of the more conservative members of the Republican Party, including James Dobson and Tony Perkins (as mentioned in the article below). These men are considering supporting someone as a third-party/independent candidate to run against Giuliani if he wins the party’s nomination. However, I believe this would hurt their effort to place a “conservative” in the White House by splitting the votes between the two candidates (even if their candidate of choice only receives 0.5% of the popular vote).

This is where a third or fourth strong party would be helpful in our society. For starters, they would provide better representation of the society by offering more choices for people to choose from. Secondly, it becomes easier for the parties to provide a clear message for where they stand on the issues, instead of sending mixed messages creating confusion and exposing the candidate to potential blunders (reference Senator John Kerry’s “I was for the war before I was against it” comment). The Libertarian and Constitution parties have a good start, and with a better organizational effort and more “big name” politicians officially joining their cause, they might one day become a national-level political threat. If not them, then it will require a serious movement by an independent candidate to finally break the hold of the two-dominating parties. And maybe then, we might finally see some true change in Washington politics.

Article:  “Christian Conservatives Consider Third-Party Effort”
By David Kirkpatrick

Alarmed at the chance that the Republican party might pick Rudolph Giuliani as its presidential nominee despite his support for abortion rights, a coalition of influential Christian conservatives is threatening to back a third-party candidate in an attempt to stop him.

(Article continues.)

The group making the threat, which came together Saturday in Salt Lake City during a break-away gathering during a meeting of the secretive Council for National Policy, includes Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, who is perhaps the most influential of the group, as well as Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, the direct mail pioneer Richard Viguerie and dozens of other politically-oriented conservative Christians, participants said. Almost everyone present expressed support for a written resolution that “if the Republican Party nominates a pro-abortion candidate we will consider running a third party candidate.”

The participants spoke on condition of anonymity because the both the Council for National Policy and the smaller meeting were secret, but they said members of the intend to publicize its resolution. These participants said the group chose the qualified term “consider” because they have not yet identified an alternative third party candidate, but the group was largely united in its plans to bolt the party if Mr. Giuliani became the candidate.

A revolt of Christian conservative leaders could be a significant setback to the Giuliani campaign because white evangelical Protestants make up a major portion of Republican primary voters. But the threat is risky for the credibility of the Christian conservative movement as well. Some of its usual grass-roots supporters could still choose to support even a pro-choice Republican like Mr. Giuliani, either because they dislike the Democratic nominee even more or because they are worried about war, terrorism and other issues.

In recent polls by the Pew Research Center, Mr. Giuliani has received a plurality of support from white evangelical Protestant voters despite a rising chorus of complaints from Christian conservative leaders about his liberal views on social issues and his unconventional family life. Some players in the movement not present at the meeting may be open to Mr. Giuliani as the lesser of two evils.

Rev. Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcast Network, for example, has provided relatively generous coverage to Mr. Giuliani and his campaign. Gary Bauer, a Christian conservative political advocate and a Republican primary candidate eight years ago, said that, speaking by phone to the meeting, he urged the group to proceed with caution. “I can’t think of a bigger disaster for social conservatives, defense conservatives, and economic conservatives than Hillary Clinton in the White House,” Mr. Bauer said.

(Read the rest of the article here.)

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