Not-so-true believers

That's the title of Jonathan Chait's LA Times op-ed piece today. It reminds me of Thomas Frank's What's the Matter with Kansas? (Owl Books, 2004), a book that describes how Kansas social conservatives who are largely blue collar vote against their own economic best interests by aligning with a Republican Party that gives lip-service to their social issues but never deliver -- only to pass lots of laws that benefit the rich and powerful -- or something like that.

In Chait's essay, he talks about how GOP candidates such as John McCain and Mitt Romney pander to the Religious Right to get their votes. The focus here is on Mitt Romney who is apparently running for President as the social conservatives great hope -- but back in 1994 he sounded pro-choice and pro-gay, but now he's to be taken as the champion of the right. So which is the true Mitt Romney, the moderate son of a moderate Michigan governor who walked out of the 1964 Convention when extremist Barry Goldwater was to speak. Of course Goldwater was greatly concerned about the takeover of the party by the Religious Right. Surely these are confusing times.

I'll leave you with this comment by Chait:

The GOP primary is indeed a sorry state of affairs for the religious right. Sen. John McCain of Arizona once described religious-right leaders as "forces of evil" and has mused that he would not support the repeal of Roe vs. Wade. More recently, McCain, like Romney, has backed off his moderate statements (not surprising, given the furor they provoked). But McCain is even less credible in his new found conservatism; only a total naif could believe him now. A general rule of political life is that when a candidate says something unpopular off the cuff and then takes it back in prepared remarks, you can be sure that the original statement is what he really thinks.

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