While most of the country spent Monday night killing babies, hating God, and furthering the homosexual agenda, the theocratic non-top-tier GOP presidential hopefuls had a Values Voters Debate Christian Right PanderFest in Ft. Lauderdale.
Although there was the predictable traditional media coverage and even some commentary by kos, I thought I'd try to dig a little deeper and find out what really went on. When we're dealing with Christian right leaders and activists, the back stories are often more insightful that what gets reported.
I investigated the so-called Values Voter 2008 Presidential Debate (brought to you by the reactionary American Family Association). Once I located a transcript, I read it so you don't have to.
Take the jump. And the poll!
As "Kyle" of the PFAW Blog reports:
For those who didn’t have the opportunity to watch the Values Voter Debate last evening, you missed quite a display of political pandering, ridiculous rhetoric and all-around right-wing lunacy.
Once you get past the predictable MSM narrative of absent front-runners and threats from Christian right leaders, several huge questions require explanation:
Why is a transcript so hard to find? Who is trying to hide this debate from public view? With scandals, schisms, and a major shift in evangelical leadership taking place right now, who are the Christian right leaders involved in this event?
Why is a transcript so hard to find? Who is trying to hide this debate from public view?
Now, I may not be the world's greatest googler, but I don't think it's an accident that I had trouble finding a transcript of this event. The candidates probably had to say a lot of things they hoped would not end up in print somewhere. Although, in lieu of embedding videos here, I'll direct you to this PFAW page that chronicles the insanity on tape.
The debate got scarcely a mention in the major dailies. I attribute this to the fact that most reporters are dry-humping their anointed front-runners around the country; the second tier is easy to ignore. Furthermore, there still seems to be a lack of understanding among mainstream journalists about the precise dynamics of the relationship between the Christian right and Republican candidates.
Who else seems interested in hiding this debate from public view? None other than Fox News, which surely knows that none of these Christian right darlings stand a chance. If you visit the Faux story about the debate, notice what you see:
-An AP story, with no original reporting from Faux
-A picture of McCain and Romney, neither of whom attended
-A sidebar with a "Related Stories" link called Transcript, which actually links to a transcript of the Sept. 5 GOP debate in New Hampshire
Even Faux knows that actually reporting in detail what the GOP candidates said last night to the Christian right audience will only hurt the GOP's chances.
With scandals, schisms, and a major shift in evangelical leadership taking place right now, who are the Christian right leaders involved in this event?
The list of right-wing luminaries obviously does not include the scandal-plagued (Ralph Reed, Ted Haggard) or the recently-deceased (Jerry Falwell, D. James Kennedy), but is rather a who's who of old and new movement leaders. The old: Phyllis Schlafly, Donald Wildmon, Rick Scarborough, Paul Weyrich, et al. The new: Roy Moore, Gordon James Kingenschmitt, Mat Staver, and many, many more up-and-coming theocrats. If you are unfamiliar with these names, you need to check out their bios and familiarize yourself with the people who are fighting hard to expand the Christian right's influence in the GOP.
As some clued-in journalists are reporting, the leadership of the visibly shaken Christian right is groping for someone they can rally around in 2008:
So far in the 2008 campaign, though, evangelical conservatives have been facing a very different prospect: No obviously viable candidate to rally behind and an increasingly restive mood in their ranks.
So political leaders of the religious right are stepping up efforts to find a consensus choice, starting this week by staging the first-ever Values Voter Presidential Debate for the Republican candidates. The debate, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., will be moderated by Joseph Farah, who edits the conservative online news site WorldNetDaily, and the questioners will include such old lions of the movement as Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation and Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum.
Expect the leadership power vacuum to produce a fair amount of infighting. There was already a move to oust Rick Cizik from the National Association of Evangelicals, the group Ted Haggard chaired. Now, Focus on the Family's political arm is staging a similar debate to the one last night, which Willard will not skip:
And next month, the Family Research Council, one of the most influential conservative advocacy groups in Washington, will hold a Values Voters Summit that at least four GOP aspirants — former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, Rep. Duncan Hunter of California and Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado — have pledged to attend. Afterward, the 2,000 or so council members who are expected to attend will be asked to participate in the group’s first straw poll.
But at the moment, the council’s president, Tony Perkins, says it’s shaping up to be a rather dour political season for the evangelical right. "Clearly, there is disappointment" in the movement’s ranks, he said.
...
This new, more tentative phase of evangelical activism also coincides with something of a leadership vacuum. Jerry Falwell, the leader of the iconic Moral Majority, died in May, and onetime presidential hopeful Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, has lost almost all his political clout. Other figures are vying for a more influential voice on a bigger national stage. Among them are Perkins, Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, and James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family.
Where were the front-runners? What difference does it make?
Avoiding it like the plague. And, probably not much. Obviously, no one is paying much attention yet. The MSM snubbed this debate just like the front-runners did. But if you see what happened last night, you will realize that some people are paying attention. The meme that Fred Thompson fills the GOP's 2008 religion gap is a total joke. Freddie doesn't go to church, McCain doesn't know what denomination he's a member of, Romney won't open up about his faith, and Guiliani says whether he's a good or bad Catholic is for the priests to say.
There is widespread discontent among GOP primary "values voters." But they Christian right at the moment lacks the power to break one of their own into the top tier. Still, we're 4 months away from votes being cast, and a lot can happen. Do not expect the evangelical right to sit this one out.