Social Conservatives' Role in Politics -- A Factual View

From an interview on CSPAN July 8, 2013. "Social Conservatives' Role in Politics" Russell Moore, Southern Baptist Convention, Ethics and Religion Liberty Commission President

Mr. Moore made a statement which I consider not only remarkable, I consider it almost unbelievable.  He said of the recent Supreme Court decision in regard to the validity of gay marriages,  "Well, I think it says something to social conservatives. I think that, for a long time, social conservatives in America had a kind of Silent Majority view of ourselves and conservative Evangelicals and conservative Roman Catholics had a Moral Majority view of ourselves, as though we somehow represented the mainstream of American culture; that most people really agree with us except for some elites somewhere.  That isn't the case. I think we need to start seeing the fact that we're really very similar to what the Christian church was in the very beginning of it's existence, a minority of people that were speaking to the larger culture in ways that are going to sometimes seem freakish to that larger culture. I don't think that that's anything that should panic us or cause us to become outraged or despondent.  I think it's a realistic view of who we are."

Considering that these groups; the Tea Party, the Religious Right, and the Republican Party in general, have for the last few decades constructed an entire belief system and developed an entire political strategy out of their conviction that the are constantly subject to victimization by a tiny minority while they see themselves as clearly in the great majority; this is a very remarkable statement!

Many of us have never believed the Silent Majority existed as anything more than a very noisy minority. Neither did we believe that the Moral Majority was either very moral or anything but another minority. When Ronald Reagan was still president, I regularly referred to the latter as the Immoral Minority. This reflects my conviction that they failed to live up to their own moral strictures and were nothing more than an even noisier, and a very much self-pitying, minority.  

But they did not, and most of them still deny the essential liberality of the  United States. Even liberal commentators frequently, and inaccurately, state that our country is center right.  The Noisy Minority and the Immoral Minority insist that the nation is radical right. One can only understand the Republican Party's conviction that election after election has been stolen from them in the light of this view. If we accept the assumption that these individuals actually do comprise the vast majority of Americans, and then the fact that this vast majority is always beaten at the ballot box, the only explanation left is that the elections must have been stolen through some form of fraud.  Until now, this was the only possible conclusion which these individuals could reach.

However, if they now begin to face the facts, they will draw very different conclusions.  There may yet be hope for them. They can provide an interesting perspective to the national political dialogue if they realize their actual position.   I have never surrendered hope for America, although there was a time when I feared that we might be forced to defend our nation from its becoming a theocratic state; an Iran lite, if you will. 

I no longer believe that the extremists of the GOP have any chance of accomplishing more than fighting a delaying action to prolong the inevitable defeat of their Lost Cause.  Even if I am correct, unlike these self appointed Chosen Ones, we must be tolerant and protect their rights, even as they desperately try to strip us of ours.  Its the moral thing to do.

Re

I am posting a conversation from Facebook.  I found it stimulating and interesting.  I hope you agree.  I have removed the names and addresses of the other two participants as I do not have their permission to post their personal data.  


L:  Stand Against GOP Voter Suppression Tactics --L posted this link.



C :   How are they preventing American Citizen Registered Voters from voting???


Jim Naranjo: Demanding identification which many thousands of voters lack , refusing student id's since young people tend to vote democratic, making new severe penalties for violating ridiculous restrictions on registering new voters, who are mostly minority and or young...etc. etc.

See: http://el-naranjal-del-desierto.blogspot.com/search?q=Voter+suppression+

This is a powerful attempt to end free elections in America and replace them with show elections in which everyone knows the winner as soon as the ruling party names its candidate. Vladimer Putin must be a Republican!

El Naranjal: Search results for Voter suppression
el-naranjal-del-desierto.blogspot.com



C :    So if you want to vote....Get a LEGAL I.D. It's really not that hard. I'm a minority and I vote legally. I don't believe I have ever met a student that didn't have a LEGAL I.D. Face it , the left is counting on the illegal immigrant vote. These are voters that should not and (according to the law) cannot vote. I guess desperate times call for desperate (and illegal) measures? Suffering from voter remorse doesn't justify a feeble attempt at defending the mistake voters made four years ago. Sniff Sniff......I smell a "Blame Bush" comment coming soon.



Jim Naranjo: It is VERY hard for the elderly, for students far from home, for the disabled and the poor, where laws require birth certificates which are expensive and hard to acquire in many states. Voter fraud is almost nonexistent, It just doesn't happen. Your arguments are the same ones ones used to defend Jim Crow when I was young. You have been deluded by agitprop and disinformation. I want all legal voters to vote, even if I dislike their choice. You want to prevent many thousands from utilizing their unalienable rights because you are afraid of illegal immigrants.

Nativism is as old as the US. In Revolutionary days it was the unAmerican Germans, In The Civil War it was the alien Irish, now it's the awful Mexicans. The GOP fears it will lose if an honest election is held. Therefore, they will recreate Jim Crow in a new form and rig the election. The Bush administration spent years and millions of dollars to root out your "voter fraud". They only found that, over ten years, there might have been three one hundred thousandths of one per cent cases, at most.

Gee, big problem. A whole three one hundred thousandths of one per cent.

Stop panicking and check the facts. This is about rights. It is about honesty. Individuals who have voted for decades are suddenly being denied that right. Individuals who come from families which have been citizens for generations!


Jim Naranjo: You're right, I'm sorry. Bush must not be held accountable for the things he did. You Republicans just abhor personal responsibility. Blame a Democrat for Mr. Bush's actions. That's fair and balanced.

C :  Voter fraud??? Does A.C.O.R.N., S.E.I.U., and thug Black Panther members standing in front of voting polls ring a bell with you? You seem to be an intelligent man, denial is not becoming of you. People can spew out all the bull$#*! they want from centuries past. I live in the present and am worried about now. Honestly, are you better off today than you were 5 years ago? Is your house worth as much today as it was 5 years ago? Did you have any furlow days 5 years ago? Your community organizer has had nearly 4 years to improve "Bushes actions"....to no avail. Maybe someday people will wise up and vote in a person because he/she is experienced and highly qualified, and not because of the color of his skin. (Look everyone, I voted for Obama....I'm obviously not a racist). But alas....most educators are of the liberal mindset and it's very difficut to convince an educator that he may have made the wrong choice. We libertarians just want less Gov and more jobs...obviously too much to ask from this administration. BTW....it's spelled "percent"....Teach


Jim Naranjo: Every time I post my comments they read correctly until actually posted. Then they are garbled. Later tonight I shall post them on my blog. My apologies for the delay and inconvenience!


My latest post:


  I have a life long philosophic commitment to the following belief system:  Reality is real.  Facts must be faced and dealt with appropriately.  You may love a fact.  You may hate a fact.  In either case it remains a fact.

  Fact: ACORN was the victim of fraudent actions, not the perpetrator.  it was ACORN which first reported the abuse.

  Fact:  SEIU was accused of inappropriate influence. Maybe guilty, maybe not.  Both political parties are definitely guilty of influence peddling.  That's both.

  Fact:  the "thug Black Panther members", were laughed at by voters and the Bush Justice Department could not find adequate cause to file charges against them.

  Fact:  GOP congressional leaders said repeatedly they would deliberately block Obama's efforts to improve the economy so as to prevent his reelection.  In spite of this, Obama has created jobs, too few, but he has actually created jobs.

  Fact:  More than half of the national debt was accumulated while Bush was still President.

  Fact:  I can spell per cent. 

  Fact: The Oxford Dictionary of the English Language reports that the term  began as per cent, moved to be percent in the 1700s, and in BE, split again to per cent, AE retaining the percent version.  As usual with such generalisations, there are lots and lots of exceptions.  In other words, I used the correct British usage.

 Furthermore,  I have a hard time typing accurately and my proofreading is terrible. I suffer from vertigo and disorientation so severe I am totally and permanently disabled.  Your sneering personal attack based on what seems to be a typographic error weakens your arguments. Argumentum ad hominem attacks are a logical fallacy and have been recognized as such for millennia. For the sake of your own credibility, I suggest you refrain from this error in the future.

  You argue not from facts, but from fear.  I am sorry you are so frightened.  I also feel threatened.  I agree that there is much to fear, but I believe that America is fundamentally strong and that we will weather these terrible times and continue to do well.
 
  I add,  Obama has done only a good job as President, not a great one.  

  I hope this calms you.  Plato was wrong about so much, but I must agree with his allegory of the charioteer.  We are a chariot pulled by the horses of our passions and emotions.  The charioteer is our rationality, whose job it is to guide and control those horses so that they do good, not evil.

  Yes, I have restated Plato's idea to correct some errors he made, but his point is largely intact.

  I apologize for any offensive typos and/or use of the Queen's English.  (This is a joke, as much at my expense as at yours.  It is good to be able to laugh at yourself.  It keeps one from taking oneself too seriously.  If you and I laugh at the both of us, there is less anger. If there is less anger, the charioteer has more control.)

  Be at peace.

  Jim

Got to run, The Celestial Dragon, aka Fenris Wolf (son of Loki) is nibbling at the sun.  I need to observe and drive him away with noise and clamor!

Once again, we are hearing from the Radical Republicans about how we must suppress the votes of those who wish to vote illegally . Of course it's interesting to note that this serious problem that must be addressed doesn't look quite so serious when we take a look at the numbers. The Bush Justice Department, which also made a lot of noise about voter fraud, on the part of Democrats, of course, ran a specific probe on the subject from 2002 to 2007. 

Yes, the United States Department of Justice devoted many millions of dollars and many, many man hours to tracking down every single possible case of this evil voter fraud. Five years later they managed to bring a shocking number of prosecutions -- 86. Yes, that's right, 86 prosecutions.  Mind you, that's not convictions, only prosecutions, out of 300 million votes cast. That's a total of 0.00003% -- four zeros, one 3; also known as three one hundred thousandths of one per cent. That sure is a huge, incredible problem that requires a massive effort to disenfranchise millions of American voters just to prevent those 86 possibly fraudulent people from voting isn't it?

 And let me remark again, that's 86 prosecutions, not convictions. So it's very clear that voter fraud is taking place on a frightening level in America, only it's not individual Democratic voters who are committing it. It's the Republican Party and it's elected officials attempting to destroy the very concept of democracy in America by disenfranchising perfectly legal voters because they vote for the wrong party. Wrong meaning Democratic, of course.

Remember, this is the political party which, a few short years age, openly planned to become the "permanent majority" party. They intended to change America into a one party nation with only a token and powerless Democratic Party to make the sham of democracy appear to be real.  They are continuing their efforts and, right now, they are beginning to succeed. 

Who is the target of these voter suppression efforts?  Primarily minorities and young voters, especially college students.  Why them? Because they strongly tend to vote for Democrats.

I support all reasonable efforts to encourage ALL eligible voters to vote.  Republican, Democratic, Independent.  Your vote is your business.  If I disagree with your choice, that's my problem, not the government's!  Free people get to vote.  If you don't like how they vote, that's too bad!