I'm disappointed that Senator Specter is going to be chairman, . . . But I'm not surprised given the ways in which the senators of both parties tend to cherish, if not worship, seniority.
As I wrote on Nov. 4th, when it comes to getting things done in congress, it is Grover Norquist that crafts the message and sets the agenda for Republicans. Norquist will see that the President's agenda stays focused on economic issues and not social issues. Again, here's Norquist's agenda as reported in the Nov. 4th edition of the New York Times:
Social conservatives are a very important part of the base, but they are not enough alone," said Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform and a conservative strategist close to the Bush administration, noting that in Illinois, Alan Keyes had taken a drubbing in the race for the Senate after running a vigorously conservative campaign on social issues.
Mr. Norquist eagerly predicted the accomplishment of a long agenda of government reduction: repealing the estate tax, privatizing Social Security, restricting medical and other liability lawsuits, closing military bases, opening more government jobs to competitive bidding to lower costs and weaken unions, imposing new disclosure requirements on organized labor, and expanding health care and investment savings accounts.
Once again evangelicals deliver the votes but can't effect the changes they say they are after. When are evangelicals going to realize that politicians will patronize them just long enough to get elected? When are Baptists going to realize that abortion has never been the real issue?
The real issue has always been securing a place at the table of power for people like Land and Dobson and Falwell. The problem of abortion could have been solved decades ago if the religious right had been willing to reach a compromise (See my Oct. 1 blog). But if they had done that, how could they keep motivating people to vote for "conservative" candidates?
No comments:
Post a Comment