From a purely political perspective I can understand how the evangelicals still cling to the abortion issue. Continually waving this flag is their only hope of keeping the Republican Party paying attention to them and granting them a larger voice than their numbers actually merit. It is their best strategy and has worked well for nearly four decades. So long as they remain the uncompromising standard-bearers of this issue they can guilt the rest of the party – which generally agrees with them though not quite so radically – into giving them a healthy dose of the party’s power. It has been the key to their success within the party and, when observed from without, the thing that has brought the party close to splintering and collapsing.
As Republicans realize that allowing the evangelical wing to control so much of their party could lead to its downfall many are starting to drift away from their extreme christian position. True to form the evangelicals refuse to compromise and work within the party. Instead they’ve stiffened their backs. They send murders into legally operating clinics to kill the doctors and nurses that run them. Openly, of course, most evangelicals condemn the actions of their christian soldiers while privately they rejoice. Don’t argue with me on this point. I’ve witnessed it.
At the same time they participate in some brilliant Rovian jujitsu and accuse the Democratics of being as bloodthirst as they actually are. Here’s a great example of what I’m talking about – Obama, younger evangelicals and a true pro-life agenda. On the face of it this seems like a fairly reasonable article about the stand-off over this issue. But the language of it is so hateful and filled with accusations to the Democratic Party and specifically the Obama administration that one can’t help but walk away with a residue of fear and loathing. The author repeatedly calls them pro-abortion. This is a most offensive idea. Nobody is pro-abortion. Let me say that again, nobody is pro-abortion. No one delights when a woman has to make this choice and to imply they do is deeply offensive. The hope appears to be that blasting Democrats with their hate will reinstate evangelicals to their former place of power within the party. The enemy of my straw-man enemy is my friend.
Again, I can understand this thrashing about. The evangelicals are afraid of losing the party they so carefully and meticulously hijacked. Let’s hope that Republicans will continue to realize that they’ve sold their soul for this single issue and start to take their party back from the christianist faction.