USA Today reports that a cabal of Christianist extremist groups that includes the Family Research Council, American Values, Focus on the Family, Free Congress and American Family Association have announced they will jointly interrogate Republican candidates for president in 2008 in order to find one whose ideology is sufficiently pure to receive their endorsement.
Candidates who seek anoinment from these pashas of the pulpit will have to prove that they are bigots and debunkers of science on issues that range from whether or not to apply the death penalty to gays and lesbians to whether or not to apply the death penalty to doctors who perform abortions.
While the mullahs of the American Right expect wingnut candidates to line up for inspection, some political observers aren’t so sure being the talibanis’ Chosen One would be a good move politically:
Being seen as the “candidate of the Christian right” would be a “very, very mixed blessing” in the general election, said Stuart Rothenberg of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report— akin to Walter Mondale’s stamp as the “candidate of labor” in the 1984 campaign.
“That would really pigeonhole a candidate,” Rothenberg said.
The problem is no matter how extreme right you are, there is always someone just a little further over on the dial who will call you a bad name. I think the next election will see the Republicans divided by this very oneupmanship. At last, they will not be monolithic but will split into factions just like our side does.
Great quote from Andre Gide: “Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.”