Rest in peace, Religious Right.
This editorial by Cal Thomas is more than a mouthful. It is a prescription, and perhaps, just what it says it is - a post mortem for the wing of the Republican Party that has dominated it for the last 20 or so years, and a wing that has painted itself into a position that it will fight to keep the Republican Party in a minority status for the next generation.
It is an odd statement coming from Cal Thomas - long a champion of the very wing of conservatism he now ushers into the political graveyard. But Cal Thomas is a seasoned and thoughtful conservative who has been commenting on the American political system for a generation and can see when it is time for change.
The Religious Right made itself into an agenda driven subsidiary of the Republican Party, galvanized by the thoughtless jurisprudence that gave us Roe v Wade, and fighting to overturn that decision. Had the movement gone from there to address other difficult issues that warranted national attention, it might have continued to prosper in these difficult times.
But instead, it became insular, negative and strident - none of which signal continuing electoral success. Perhaps worse, it became ideologically detached from its own moorings.
By accepting a theology that teaches that the end of the world is at hand, the movement adopted an agenda that could not look ahead in America, and focused much of its energy on Israel - for all the wrong reasons. History proves that fatalistic movements generate fatal ideologies.
If the Religious Right is to be resurrected in a forceful way, it must go back to its core belief - it is a people who are who they are because of a belief in resurrection - and that is what this movement needs today - to be resurrected.
If it is, it will be much different than before, the corruption of Neo-conservatism will be gone, and a new hopeful outlook, such as the optimism of Ronald Reagan that brought the movement to life in 1980 must be its trademark.
We are living in new times - a new generation, with new leadership and new ideas. The principles one holds dear must remain, but those which are proven false need to be "left behind" - to borrow the phrase from one of the movement's leaders.
Limited government, protection of life, liberty and property - these were always themes the Religious Right should have owned - but didn't. Whatever emerges in the future, the response to the new wave of leadership in America will need to encompass these principles - it cannot be a movement of authoritarian rigidity - it must soudn the cry of freedom, and sound it loud and long.
This editorial by Cal Thomas is more than a mouthful. It is a prescription, and perhaps, just what it says it is - a post mortem for the wing of the Republican Party that has dominated it for the last 20 or so years, and a wing that has painted itself into a position that it will fight to keep the Republican Party in a minority status for the next generation.
It is an odd statement coming from Cal Thomas - long a champion of the very wing of conservatism he now ushers into the political graveyard. But Cal Thomas is a seasoned and thoughtful conservative who has been commenting on the American political system for a generation and can see when it is time for change.
The Religious Right made itself into an agenda driven subsidiary of the Republican Party, galvanized by the thoughtless jurisprudence that gave us Roe v Wade, and fighting to overturn that decision. Had the movement gone from there to address other difficult issues that warranted national attention, it might have continued to prosper in these difficult times.
But instead, it became insular, negative and strident - none of which signal continuing electoral success. Perhaps worse, it became ideologically detached from its own moorings.
By accepting a theology that teaches that the end of the world is at hand, the movement adopted an agenda that could not look ahead in America, and focused much of its energy on Israel - for all the wrong reasons. History proves that fatalistic movements generate fatal ideologies.
If the Religious Right is to be resurrected in a forceful way, it must go back to its core belief - it is a people who are who they are because of a belief in resurrection - and that is what this movement needs today - to be resurrected.
If it is, it will be much different than before, the corruption of Neo-conservatism will be gone, and a new hopeful outlook, such as the optimism of Ronald Reagan that brought the movement to life in 1980 must be its trademark.
We are living in new times - a new generation, with new leadership and new ideas. The principles one holds dear must remain, but those which are proven false need to be "left behind" - to borrow the phrase from one of the movement's leaders.
Limited government, protection of life, liberty and property - these were always themes the Religious Right should have owned - but didn't. Whatever emerges in the future, the response to the new wave of leadership in America will need to encompass these principles - it cannot be a movement of authoritarian rigidity - it must soudn the cry of freedom, and sound it loud and long.
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