In Requiem the Religious Right (2001)

This article was originally published  soon after the  Bush II  nomination and the  shameful events at the GOP convention where leaders of the religious right were removed from the speaker's schedule in favor of  gay friendly speakers and told to stay out of sight.  The article gained national attention on the net  and was  quickly  quashed by everyone except the Lone Star Conservative  who kept a copy  up  long after everyone else had caved:

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From 1980 until 1992 Republicans occupied the White House. There can be little serious argument that the key voting bloc in those Presidential victories was the so-called "religious right." They were everywhere in the party from local precinct meetings to the podium of the national convention. They were the single most loyal and dependable voting bloc in the GOP. However, during the last GOP convention, leaders of the religious right were actually asked to stay out of view while so-called moderates espousing abortion, feminism, gay rights and affirmative action were allowed to make prime time network appearances. Jerry Falwell's "Moral Majority" fell on to the dust heap of political insignificance years ago. Founder Pat Robertson resigned from all participation in the Christian Coalition last week. What happened to the religious right? How could the most powerful voting bloc in the party come to such a state in just a few years? In my opinion, (1) they didn't learn that access does not equal influence; (2) they learned too late that fraternization can lead to assimilation; (3) they forgot that promises must be followed by performance; and (4) they forgot that principle must control politics.

Access without influence:

Access to political figures is a heady thing. Simply being in the presence of power has a narcotic effect. However, the fact that the Congressman or Senator will take five minutes to visit with you means nothing if the visit does not accomplish some useful purpose. Unfortunately, to many political access was and is frequently seen as an end rather than a means. Access means nothing if it does not result in influence. Access means you get invited to political and quasi-political social functions, the candidate or official calls you "my dear friend" or "tireless worker" in public, etc. For some people these sometimes empty symbols of recognition are the raison de etre of political effort. However, influence means that at the end of a meeting the politician forwards your agenda and defends it when necessary against your enemies. Access without influence is hypocrisy on the part of the politician and self-delusion on the part of the voter or worker.

From fraternization to assimilation:

It is a law of the universe that in every exchange one or both sides will be changed in some way by the other. The only question is who will change and to what degree? The religious right at its peak was a mile wide but in most places only an inch deep. Doctrinally weak in their own beliefs and lacking any real political education, many members of the religious right turned from wary fraternization to unthinking assimilation into the GOP mainstream. Equipped only with buzz words and biblically correct though intellectually unsupported political positions, many fell prey to better educated, more grounded "moderate" influences in the party.

The civil rights movement of the 1960's proved to be a political windfall for the Democratic party. By positioning themselves as the sole friend of America's largest untapped bloc of voters they assured themselves an unquestioningly loyal base to work from for generations. Desperate to counter this bloc, GOP strategists sought to isoloate a similar bloc of voters and found them in the under-represented sleeping giant of the American church. It was a brilliant political coup of massive proportions by GOP strategists. Millions of once conservative religious voters of both parties became part of the GOP "mainstream" within two or three election cycles. Without a clear cut political philosophy or adequate analytical tools, they became a politicians dream, a mass of easily influenced voters easily led to the left, right or center as needed to forge the necessary coalitions to gain or maintain power. And, as evidenced at the last convention, they can even to be told to sit down and shut up and still be depended upon to vote for the GOP candidate.

Looking back, the church failed to ground its people in the practical application of key doctrines and when its members were let out into the political system to change the world they were instead changed themselves.

Promises without performance:

The absolute proof of the failure of the religious right lies in its legislative record on key issues. The promises of the candidates that the religious right swept into power have not been followed by performance on the agreed upon agenda. While some good work has been done, while they frequently won the battle to elect their candidates they lost the post election legislative battles and are thus still losing the culture war.

GOP candidates waved the bloody red shirt of abortion in every election from state house to the white house for years. Judicial reform was a key issue among religious right intellectuals. But, after twelve years of Reagan-Bush, abortion was and is still legal until seconds before birth. Far from being over, the battle over abortion is being bitterly fought as we speak in the halls of Congress where a GOP majority has been quietly spiking pro-life legislation. Many cynics believe that they do this because they would rather have the issue and the votes it produces than victory. After twelve years in power, the Supreme Court's makeup did not appreciably change. Scared into submission by the vitriol of the Bork battle, only one true conservative Justice, Clarence Thomas, was nominated. And, even that victory was offset by the appointment of the strongly left leaning David Souter and the unpredictable Justice Kennedy. As we speak, even moderately conservative appointments by the second Bush administration are bound up in committee and political infighting. Pornography advanced from carefully zoned red light districts and movie houses into every home through the internet. Our national media is a sewer of perversion, far worse than before. Scenes and themes appear nightly on network television that were relegated to movie houses and premium cable channels only a decade ago. Premium cable channels show perversion that I will not describe twenty four hours a day seven days per week. And, anti-Christian bias in the culture and courts is now worse than ever. By any objective measure, the religious right won its political battles for the GOP but lost the war to implement its agenda.

Politics without Principle:

The key to the problem lies in the fact that Christian voters do not follow their issues. Trained by their churches to let the guy behind the pulpit worry about doctrine, they apply the same principle to their politicians. They can be quickly mobilized to elect a candidate but then either blindly hero worship him or worse simply lose interest. It is almost impossible to get Christian voters to criticize a candidate they helped to elect or hold him accountable for his actions. Once in office, he can abandon the agenda and they will simply look the other way. Until the religious voter learns to hold their candidates feet to the fire on key issues, regardless of short term loss of access, they will not change the political system or the culture. The pro-abortion lobby has not changed its position on key issues in thirty years. It has to date never supported a moderately pro-life candidate to help the Democratic party win a key election as pro-lifers have been asked to help so-called "moderate pro-choice" candidates time and again by the GOP. The same is true but to a much higher degree if that is possible for the gay lobby. The education lobby moves further left every election. Their extreme positions cost the Democratic party millions of voters and yet their access and influence within the party are unchallenged. The reason these hard line left wing ideologues remain powerful despite their relatively small number is simple. They take no prisoners. If their candidates stray from their positions they punish them. They are in the game for the long haul and stay focussed on their issues.

Shamefully, it must be said that in practice on the political playing field, the abortion rights lobby, the public education lobby and the gay rights lobby are far more dedicated to their cause than the Body of Christ. This has led to a new set of paradigms in GOP politics. Run right govern center. Stay in office by staying flexible. Political expediency governs the application of principle. Say what you have to to get elected but remember who on "the Hill" will punish you if you cross them. GOP candidates know that by simply learning a few Christian buzz words, getting the right high profile Christian to sit beside you at a meeting, attending a few prayer breakfasts, etc. that many gullible voters will vote for them. Later after the election, if even asked, failure to produce on their agenda can be blamed on the opposition, the courts or the bureaucracy. Cynically, the political key to the Christian vote is simply saying the right things on the stump that you can later deny privately on the hill, sometimes even before the election is over! And, the issues will be lying there waiting to be taken up again during the next election cycle.

Summary:

Christian citizens must learn to participate in the political system in a way that does not compromise their key principles. They must get past the hero worshipping, elect 'em and forget 'em, style of participation and learn to track issues and measure results. They must learn to hold their candidates accountable and be ready to punish them when necessary even if it means losing access or even an election. Paradoxically in this conversation at least, Christians are not accountable in the end for results only faithfulness. They must remain faithful to their principles, support faithful politicians and refuse to support unfaithful ones. They must become every bit as dedicated to their issues as their opposition. Fortunately, gutsy, hard-ball faithfulness to the cause, as evidenced by the other side, is good politics and the only way to gain permanent influence in the political system.

On President Trump and Eating Crow

During the last election, I vehemently opposed Trump.  I had good reasons.  Donald Trump showed no reasonable qualifications for the job except enough money to run without party support.  He has a problematic past.  And, he found much of his appeal in a class of voter that represents what is wrong with American politics.  There was simply no good reason to predict that a Donald Trump presidency would be anything short of a disaster.

But, to my shock and amazement, Donald Trump has governed very well.  He has done many of the things that other presidential candidates promised without actually intending to carry through.  He has governed wisely, if brashly, and exposed both the GOP and deep state for what they are. 

Trump's presidency has been plagued with deep state coups, GOP recalcitrance and absolute, violence in streets, war by the left.  Another GOP candidate probably wouldn't have generated this intense, visceral antipathy.  But, another GOP candidate might not have actually kept his word to the voters.  None have in my memory.

So, I have to say that I fully support Donald Trump as my president and will continue to do so as long he was governs well.  Had I known then what I know now, I would probably have voted for him warts and all. 

Same War, Same Sides, Just Different Tactics .....

It was a steamy summer night in July, 1968 when I stood in a room with a dozen other guys of my age, faced the flag, came to attention, raised my hand and uttered the following words:

"I, (state your name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

It was a solemn moment.  I wasn’t really happy about it.  I had a steady job, a beautiful girlfriend that I knew I was going to marry sooner or later and a brand new Camaro Z-28.  I didn’t want to leave them.  It was 1968 for heaven’s sake.  A wild time.  Peace, love and rock and roll.  Crazy things happened.  I had plans for my life.  I wanted to finish my engineering degree, become a Naval Aviator, get married and then become an airline pilot.

But, there was a hitch.  The tiny, wide spot in the road high school that I graduated from barely prepared its better graduates for entry into a backwoods teacher college much less engineering school.  It was particularly deficient in math and science.  The day I enrolled in college, I was two years behind the other students and I never caught up.  In 1968, if you weren’t making “satisfactory progress” (making passing grades in class level courses for your major) you were subject to the draft.  And, this was back in the day when you had to actually demonstrate proficiency in difficult subjects like calculus, organic chemistry, physics, thermodynamics, etc. to pass.  I couldn’t cut it in college and a letter from the local draft board was in the works when I enlisted. The fact that a year or so of remedial courses would have put my academic career and life back on track meant nothing.  Thirty years would pass before I finally earned a degree.

And, I wasn’t happy about the war.  I had no moral or ethical objections.  I had planned to serve in the military after I finished college.  I was far from being a hippy.  But, along with many of the better minds at the time including a chorus from inside the military, I knew in my gut that Viet Nam was a terrible mistake that would kill a lot of fine young men and still not end well for the U.S. or change much in the region.  I had read General Douglas MacArthur’s warning about getting involved in a land war in Asia and thought it made a lot of sense.

A lot of people avoided the draft.  Some broke the law and went to Canada.  Some tried the conscientious objector route.  Some faked injuries.  An amazing number of high school and college athletes were physically unfit for military service even though they had just played a season of their sport with taped knees, shoulders and ankles.  Some produced evidence of mental unfitness with the help of a sympathetic psychiatrist.  A few claimed to be homosexual.

Others found a “third way.  Some favorite sons with influence would hold a “frat party” where they would allegedly get drunk and do something stupid like joyride a conveniently placed vehicle.  There would be a quiet plea bargain (nothing in the papers of course) and a felony conviction that would later be expunged by a cooperative judge as a “youthful indiscretion.”  Some guys even went to seminary.  One these would be ministers I knew of, while still attending seminary, got drunk as a lord on a Saturday night and shot out most of the street lights in his hometown.  

But that was not for me and there I was standing before a U.S. flag literally swearing my life away.  Why did I do it?  Because it was still my country and my country was at war.  It was one of those rare binary decision moments where conscience requires that you choose a side.  I chose duty, honor and country.

The effects of that choice were soon overwhelming.  After boot camp, I was temporarily assigned to a destroyer on the west coast.  At the time, Naval Regulations still required that enlisted men leave the ship in uniform.  Unofficially of course, we were warned that it was not safe to walk around Long Beach, California in uniform so the command would “look the other way” concerning civilian clothes.  The implication hit me like a ton of bricks.  The Viet Nam war was being fought right here in the streets of the U.S as well as in Southeast Asia.  The folks who “opposed the war” by demonstrating, burning draft cards, and beating up military personnel were every bit as much the enemy as the Viet Cong.  It was the same war and the same sides just different tactics for a different place and moment in time.  

A few months later, I was in San Francisco.  You never forget the first time you pull real guard duty.  I was assigned to walk a section of shore on the Treasure Island Naval Station in San Francisco Bay.  Constant shore watches were necessary because the peaceful hippie types over in the city were given to rowing over and trying to burn down buildings, damage equipment and generally disrupt operations at the base.  I remember a conversation with a huge black Marine who was back from Viet Nam and now assigned to security at the Naval Station.  He told me, “You cain’t have no mercy on dem punks.  If dey come across yore line you gotta get dat stick goin’ and take their asses down.”  Same war, same sides, just different tactics for a different place and moment in time.

A year later, I was home-ported on the East Coast.  One of the first missions I was involved in was landing Marines at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station a few days after the vicious race riots there.  A group of militant blacks had mutinied, beaten a bunch of people up, destroyed a lot of property and generally disrupted operations at the base.  Same war, same sides, just different tactics for a different place and moment in time.

My ship’s “alternate home-port” in winter was San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory.  This was very pleasant duty.  But it had a real dark side.  Puerto Rico has always had a strong, communist backed “resistance movement.”  Americans tend to forget that Puerto Rican terrorists once shot up a bunch of congressmen in Washington D.C. and were plotting to assassinate President Truman.  FALN terrorists promised to kill one sailor or marine from each U.S. ship that docked in Puerto Rico every time they docked.  They often made good on their promise.  So, we went on liberty in groups and always watched the alleys and shadows.  Same war, same sides, just different tactics for a different place and moment in time.

Around Christmas one year, we docked in a large South American port.  We had an unusual cargo, several large pallets of reconditioned toys from the Marines Toys for Tots campaign and tons of surplus C and 10 in 1 rations that were to be distributed to charitable organizations in country.  We were also training the local counter-terrorism forces in amphibious and riverine warfare.  I had shore patrol duty.  We were stationed around town at strategic places where it was deemed safer for our sailor and marines to enjoy their liberty.  We were transported around town by the local military in former U.S. Army six-by trucks with the canvas covers pulled tight so the locals couldn’t see us.  Unfortunately, on a Saturday night word got out about what route would be taken and we found our passage blocked in a town square.  We were quickly surrounded by a couple of thousand shouting, cursing, demonstrating locals.  Luckily, we were “escorted” by a squad of dead eyed, submachine gun armed local security troopers who kept the crowd from killing us.  Same war, same sides, just different tactics for a different place and moment in time.

During that same week in that same port, my partner and I walked into an upscale European style hotel bar to rest for a moment.  A well dressed, obviously wealthy young man offered to buy us a drink.  We were about the same age.  We cautiously explained that we were on duty and could not consume alcohol.  He then offered to buy us a coke and explained that he just wanted to visit with some Americans and practice his English.  As we chatted, he told us that his family owned a large estancia (agri-business ranching operation) up in the highlands where there was an unpublicized but bitter little shooting war going on with communist backed FARC guerillas.  The terrorists were given to doing horrible things to people of his social class.  Unlike Americans of his class, this man had seen communism first hand and he hated it and the people who espoused it with a white hot passion.  As we left, he said he just wanted to thank us for being there and training the local security forces.  It was genuine gratitude we would often not receive in the states.  Same war, same sides, just different tactics for a different place and moment in time.  

And then one day it was over, or at least I thought it was.  I was back home in civilian clothes, trying to put a life put on hold back together again.  But while I was gone.  America had changed.  The war on the streets of America had not ended simply went into a different phase.  The guys who had had avoided service outright or found their “third way” now had degrees and jobs and positions of power.  They were professors at the colleges returning GI’s had to attend and managers in the businesses where they sought jobs.  The hippies were now socially acceptable and even favored. 

The attitude of the nation had changed.  Veterans were looked upon with fear and avoidance and sometimes even shame.  The “establishment” (meaning at that time American culture and values) was now the enemy.  Just as we had lost the land war in Viet Nam we had also lost the culture war on the streets of America.  My generation of veterans would not receive the same welcome or get the same boost in putting their lives back together our fathers had enjoyed.  We sneaked home through airports, changed quickly into civilian clothes and tried to act like it had all never happened.  We hid our veteran status and avoided conversations about our service.  We basically just went to ground.  Same war, same sides, just different tactics for a different place and moment in time.

It took me a while to realize that I had changed too.  I had been driven into hiding on the streets of my own country simply for wearing my country’s uniform.  I had been forced to take up arms against fellow Americans who hated me for protecting them.  I had walked the streets of a U.S. Territory knowing that there were people in the shadows who would kill me for simply being there.  I had walked the streets of foreign countries surrounded by people who hated all Americans, particularly the American military, for nothing more than being Americans.

If I learned nothing else, I had learned to spot my enemies both foreign and domestic.  When I heard an American college professor spouting Marxist bullshit I knew that he was just a front for the guys who burned villages, killed priests and castrated village leaders in other parts of the world.  When I saw pretty college girls who spit in soldier’s faces and called them baby-killers I knew that they were just useful idiots enabling the punks in the alleys who lay in wait for uniformed service people.  When I saw the professional athlete who converted to Islam and refused to serve in the military I knew that he was nothing more than a propaganda tool of the worldwide Marxist movement.  They were all the same.  Same war, same sides, just different tactics for a different place and moment in time.

You see, the Viet Nam war never really ended.  Viet Nam was only an outbreak of the larger cold war pitting Marxism against American style constitutional government.  The Marxists are patient.  They have waited, working quietly, producing a generation of Americans who are so stupid that they can be manipulated into a lynch mob by simply uttering code words and phrases coupled with meaningless accusations.

As I write, it is happening all over again.  America is being torn apart by a group of over-paid, badly behaved, under-educated, professional athletes who don’t even know what they are protesting only that they are black and need to protest something.  They and the idiots who support them don’t realize that they are being used by people with far different motives and that they are nothing more than the socially acceptable propaganda front for the street thugs killing cops, burning neighborhoods and destabilizing the whole nation.  And the team owners, the media and a lot of America are desperately and even militantly seeking yet another "third way" compromise that will prevent them from finally having to choose one side or the other in the long and never ending culture war for nations and souls.

In the last generation the enemy was the military and they destroyed it.  We will never again have a citizen military like the one that served our country faithfully for generations.  The Viet Nam years made it impossible.  The enemy now is the police.  With amazing speed, these Marxist pawns are now destroying our local police departments.  And all I can say is …… same war, same sides, just different tactics for a different moment in time.         

Facing Southern Demons

Part of the challenge of being an intellectual southerner is learning to face your demons for what they are and then having confronted them retain the best of your culture without revising your history or burning it down. The famous author Forrest Carter wrote poignantly about the complex relationship between Cherokees and the larger culture in his award winning novel "The Education of Little Tree." In earlier years, this book reached near scriptural authority with liberals. Carter also wrote the novellas upon which arguably the best western movie ever filmed was based, "The Outlaw Josey Wales." Again, he put a human face on violent and marginalized people whose side of the story was never told.
 
Carter was a brilliant student of southern culture and his analysis of the Celtic influence on Southern Hill Culture deserves a place on your bookshelf. (If you can find a copy of his work that hasn't been ceremonially trashed by a PC librarian.) LINK TO ARTICLE

But, there was another side to Forest Carter. Before he became the darling of the liberals for his sensitive writing about the state of Native Americans he went by anther name, Asa Earl Carter. Asa Earl Carter was a hard core segregationist, a major figure in the "League of the South" movement, a Klansman and the speech writer for George Wallace. It was Carter who penned the words, "Segregation now. Segregation forever."

So how do you reconcile the bitter racist bigot Carter with the man who wrote so sensitively about Cherokee culture? How do you come to grips with the brilliant novelist who also had a terrible past? In some cases you don't. He was what he was. But, his work also is what it is.

So, you take his work on face value, read it critically in light of his background and learn what you can from it. You don't burn the books and the movies and you don't dig up his bones and scatter them on a trash heap. You praise him for what he did well and reject what he did wrong.

Carter died in a drunken bar fight in Southern Texas, perhaps a fitting end for such a talented, complicated and sometimes violent man.