Another Answer To THE QUESTION, Identity Politics on the run, and more…
It’s Michigan’s Turn to Answer . . .
The Question and the answer is…YES!
Politically this is highly significant given Michigan’s size, the delegates at stake, and the results on the undercard, which spell the possible end to Evangelical identity politics. Some, like the NYPost had to continue to saw on the Mormon angle with their headline, “The Mormon The Merrier.” Cute, but unnecessary and irrelevant as this CNN post shows.
Romney was also aided by winning a strong share of evangelical voters. As predicted, evangelical turnout was up this cycle — they constituted 38 percent of GOP primary voters. Mike Huckabee was banking on winning this bloc as overwhelmingly as he had in Iowa, but the exit polls indicate that he and Romney were essentially tied among those voters, with Romney getting the votes of 33 percent to Huckabee’s 31 percent.
That may be the most encouraging thing I have read in a very long time. The London Telegraph also insisted on leading their story with the Mormon angle, but one has to think this sort of thing is going to eventually be the footnote it should be and not the headline. Politico is beginning to wonder about the labels. Oh how I look forward to the day they are no longer needed.
It was also interesting to note how many other “minorities” are following this story.
Everybody Was Asking . . .
. . . can Huck reach more than the hardcore Evangelical? The AP wondered as did the Guardian Unlimited. The results indicate that the answer to that question is a resounding NO! This was predictable, and it is sad because it relegates Huckabee and those that were swept up into Huckamania to the sidelines.
How did we get here? Well, as late as Monday, Huck was saying, when it comes to constitutional amendments on abortion and marriage:
“[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it’s a lot easier to change the constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that’s what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards.”
Now, while I may agree with the stance, invoking scripture is nothing short of a political loser. Arguing for political action, in the public square, on the basis of scripture is a way to chase away as many or more votes than attract. Most Americans understand that such is just not the way even hard core Christians argue public policy. John Mark Reynold looks at the theological and philosophical details of this in his usual excellent manner.
Lowell: Andy McCarthy at NRO is just devastating on this one:
Huckabee is made to order for the Left: his rhetoric embodies their heretofore lunatic indictment that we’re no better that what we’re fighting against. Let’s “amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards”? Who needs to spin when the script speaks for itself? Where has Huck been for the last seven years? Does he not get that our enemies — the people who want to end our way of life — believe they are simply imposing God’s standards?
“Huckabee is made to order for the Left.” I heard Rush Limbaugh say this morning that if Huckabee is nominated, that would be a disaster for the GOP. This incident is one example of why that’s true.
Controversy . . .
Remember the New Hampshire push-poll scandal? The details continue to emerge. A Portland, Oregon TV station carries some excerpts of the script for the calls. I know I’d hang up on such a call!
General Reading…
Minnesota NPR looks at Mormon participation in the election there. This story is actually getting a little old as it has been done in many locales, what is interesting to me is how Mormons seem to get the negatives of identity politics much better than we creedal Chrostian types.
A First Things, noted Catholic thinker Charles Chaput pens some guidelines for Roman Catholics as they approach the election. There are a couple of very important things to note in this piece. One is the drastic changes inside Catholicism over the centuries in its approach to this subject. Churches change. Secondly, we Protestants have a few things to learn from our Catholic forebearers.
Finally . . .
David Gushee says some really smart things in USAToday.
Evangelical politics matter to the general public, which is affected by what conservative evangelicals believe and “value.” In the past seven years, we have seen that laws are written based on these values. Supreme Court justices are named based on these values. Executive-branch appointments are made based on these values. And presidential campaigns now seem to advance or collapse based on these values.
So the general public has come to understand that what conservative evangelicals believe and do matter an awful lot to everyone in this country. Many people are furious about it. But these beliefs and values also matter to other Christians, especially other evangelicals like me. Our reputation is at stake, our voice in the culture, and the health of our religious communities. If the most vocal evangelicals get this wrong, it damages all evangelicals — all religious believers, really.
[...]
But we dare not identify the work of any state, any political party or any politician with the work of God or the task of the church. Every time we do so we end up embarrassing ourselves, enraging the neighbors we are called to love, deepening the culture wars and damaging our own mission.
AMEN!!!
Lowell: And amen!
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