Politics, Religion, and Compromise

It has been fun watching the Religious Right try to get a handle around the current crop of GOP candidates. The only "pure" candidate left in the mix is Mike Huckabee, who most Religious conservatives seem to like but don't think he can live -- though there is the charge that he's a big government liberal with conservative social positions (the real Compassionate Conservative).
The question is, what to make of the decision of religious conservatives to back other candidates -- including the most unlikely of all -- Rudy Giuliani. Both Huckabee and Jim Wallis cried shame when Pat Robertson offered his support to Rudy. Now, I'm not a fan of any of these GOP candidates, but I find Dan Gilgoff's thoughts on this interesting. He suggests that maybe this is a good thing, a sign that religious conservatives have finally begun to understand that politics requires compromise. Huckabee might cry shame and call for purity -- to back those who use the language of Zion -- but such a ghettoizing view isn't healthy.
Then of course there is the question that might be put to Huckabee himself -- would he join a Giuliani ticket? This might be the ultimate compromise, but as Gilgoff writes:

His willingness to pair up with a social liberal would doubtless be seen in some quarters as selling out. But in the fallen world of American politics, it would probably be the best evangelicals could hope for.

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