Thursday, January 19, 2012

Have the Republicans Run Out of Protestants?

With Rick Perry's withdrawal from the presidential nomination race, the Republican Party is down to Romney the Mormon, Santorum the traditional Catholic, Gingrich the newcomer Catholic, and Ron Paul.

Ron Paul is a libertarian.  Libertarians are mostly unreligious, and a strong segment, like Jesse Ventura, regard religion as a crutch for the weak.

But Ron Paul also attends a Baptist church, is pro-life, and has been on both sides of the gay marriage issue.

I think Paul has not fully worked out the relationship between his religious views and his political views. He is clearly against the federal government being involved in moral and religious matters, as a strict libertarian would be.  But whether he would support or oppose the Christian Right position at the state level is not clear.

In any case, the Republican Party, which has made evangelical Protestants the foundation of its base for a generation, has now run out of any clear socially conservative evangelical candidates for president.

10 comments:

dennistheeremite said...

In politics the tactics are so cuthroat and the rhetoric is so contrived that it is surprising any decent, sane human being would would dare to get involved. I worry about this. I think it has, historically, been difficult, but it seems to have gotten worse. And, like the Republicans, mainline Protestants (I'm thinking we Presbyterians) are consumed with battling among ourselves.

Anonymous said...

No Protestants on the Supreme Court either...

Gruntled said...

Indeed: http://gruntledcenter.blogspot.com/2010/06/elena-kagan-another-triumph-of-wasp.html

Pauline said...

Catholics and Jews rock.

The Errant Viewer said...

I would say Santorum is more of an "evangelical Catholic" than a "traditional" Catholic.

Anonymous said...

errant, are you saying that real Catholics ate liberal?

Anonymous said...

are

The Errant Viewer said...

Well, I think he sides more with certain fundamental evangelicals on some issues over his own church. On issues such as the environment, the death penalty, and more equitable economic systems he chooses to disagree with the magisterium who advocate for more care and justice. I'm in no position to say who are "real" Catholics and who are not, but it's not right for him to stand on certain issues, such as abortion and gay right, because of his faith, then ignore that same faith on more challenging issues, such as loving your enemy, forgiving those who do you wrong, and protecting the good earth. If's he's going to run as a Catholic, fine - but he needs more constancy.

Perry said...

But errant, you are implying that Rick is not a real Catholic. The Church includes liberals, conservatives and libertarians and all are real Catholics. The Pope is neither liberal nor conservative.

The Errant Viewer said...

"Liberal," "conservative," and "libertarian" are mere descriptors of political preference. The Church is neither liberal, nor conservative. However, Catholics of all political persuasions are supposed to give heed to Church teaching. I'm simply saying many of his political leanings lie closer to evangelicals than to Catholicism.