Wow, now we see the true GOP agenda!
So here's a new article in the New York Times. Finally we have some Republicans admitting that there is TOO MUCH separation of church and state! The Kerry campaign should seize on this and make it front page news. But of course, they're pretty inept and won't do it.
THE RELIGION ISSUE
A Call to 'Win This Culture War'
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: September 1, 2004
At a closed, invitation-only Bush campaign rally for Christian conservatives yesterday, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas called for a broad social conservative agenda notably different from the televised presentations at the Republican convention, including adopting requirements that pregnant women considering abortions be offered anesthetics for their fetuses and loosening requirements on the separation of church and state.
"We must win this culture war," Senator Brownback urged a crowd of several hundred in a packed ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, reprising a theme of a speech by Patrick J. Buchanan from the podium of the 1992 Republican convention that many political experts say alienated moderate voters in that election.
Called "the Family, Faith and Freedom Rally" in e-mail invitations sent to Christian conservatives in New York for the convention, the event was organized by the Bush-Cheney campaign "to celebrate America and President George W. Bush," according to a copy of the invitation. The e-mail called Mr. Bush "a conservative leader who shares our values, who takes a strong stand for his faith."
Ralph Reed, a senior campaign adviser and liaison to conservative Christians, also addressed the crowd. Several campaign staff members, including the deputy political director, Christian Myers, attended, along with Timothy Goeglein, the White House liaison to Christian groups. One invited participant said the rally, which was closed to the news media, was the main event sponsored by the campaign for social conservatives attending the convention.
The rally struck a very different tone from the speakers behind the lectern inside the Republican convention, where talk of national unity and cultural inclusiveness has been the rule. Last night, Mr. Brownback himself spoke on the subject of the president's compassionate conservatism and efforts to alleviate AIDS. "A fundamental principle of our democracy and our Republican Party is respect for the inherent dignity, equality and sanctity of every human life," he said from the podium.
The difference highlights a balancing act the Bush campaign faces in staging its convention. The spotlight on the party's national convention is a chance to project a welcoming, pluralistic face to moderate or undecided voters. But, anticipating a close election, the campaign has also made it a priority to motivate the socially conservative evangelical Christians among its base to go the polls.
At the afternoon rally, Mr. Brownback singled out several subjects of special interest to conservative evangelical Protestants that have been largely omitted from the presentations at the convention, including opposition to abortion and same-sex unions, the plight of Christians and other victims of violence in Sudan, human trafficking, and events in Israel.
"I fear for the Republic, I really do," warned Mr. Brownback, a favorite of party conservatives. "We are accused of having a radical agenda for saying that marriage is between a man and a woman and it is the best way for children to be raised. It is not about being hateful. It is about being truthful."
President Bush, for his part, also opposes legalized abortion and recognizing same-sex marriage. But he has said he supports the separation of church and state and the ability of states to create other forms of recognition for gay unions. He has pointedly avoided deprecating gay men and lesbians or engaging in talk of a "culture war."
Representatives of the Bush campaign did not respond to several calls for comment on other aspects of the rally. But in an e-mail message to The New York Times, Nicolle Devenish, the campaign's communications director, criticized the newspaper for covering an event that "was closed to the press" as "not professional or appropriate." A New York Times reporter was invited to the event by participants who accompanied him.
Mr. Reed also addressed the crowd, recalling Mr. Bush's response to a question about his favorite philosopher during the 2000 Republican primary. "The President said, 'Jesus Christ,' " Mr. Reed recalled. And amid rousing applause, he repeated Mr. Bush's distinctively evangelical follow-up: "The president said, as only he can say, 'If I have to explain it to you, then you don't understand it.' "
Mr. Bush's most important accomplishment, Mr. Reed argued, was greater than any legislative achievement: "He has returned to us an office that was occupied by George Washington, Abe Lincoln, and Ronald Reagan. He has restored the honor and dignity of the highest office in the land."
But it was Mr. Brownback who laid out more specific policy goals. On the subject of opposition to abortion, Mr. Brownback argued that many women who choose abortion were unaware of what he said was the pain the procedure caused a fetus. His call for women contemplating abortions to be offered anesthetics for the fetus referred to a bill, "The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act," that he has discussed introducing in Congress. "We are going to keep moving this agenda forward," he vowed.
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Mr. Brownback argued the importance to the culture of appointing more conservative judges, asserting that courts have conducted "a 40-year assault on the Constitution." Courts, he argued, had wrongly overstretched "separation of church and state" to mean "removal of church from state."
Urging action to alleviate violence in Sudan, he argued that the "strategic interest" of the United States was "that there are beautiful individuals there suffering, that many of you have prayed for for a long time."
"You are the heart and soul of the party," Mr. Brownback said. "And the press hits you all the time, like there is something wrong with 'faith, family and freedom.' "
Recalling the motto "In God We Trust," Mr. Brownback asked, "Is it still true? I say it is, and I say we fight."
Before the television cameras inside the convention, the campaign has relied on a combination of moderate, pluralistic words and resonant religious atmospherics to appeal to both moderate voters and conservative Christian at once. On the first night of the convention, for example, Senator John McCain praised Islam as an honorable religion - a statement many evangelical Christians consider heretical - and two Muslim speakers invoked Allah from the stage.
But at times the staging of the evening resembled an evangelical Protestant church service. Personal testimonials from the widows of Sept. 11 victims with heartfelt allusions to prayer were followed directly by a performance of the hymn "Amazing Grace," and other performances have included a Christian rock group, a church choir from Queens and the Boys Choir of Harlem.
Calibrating its appeals to both conservative Christians and more secular or socially liberal voters is a longstanding challenge for the party. Although Mr. Buchanan's 1992 speech may have alienated moderate voters by taking aim at the popular culture, political advisers to Mr. Bush believe his 2000 campaign failed to adequately mobilize conservative Christian voters. Mr. Bush's political adviser, Karl Rove, has often said that conservative Christian turnout in 2000 was about four million votes below his projections in the last elections, and anticipating another close race they are counting on regular churchgoers, who tend to vote Republican, to help Mr. Bush come out ahead.
Yesterday, Mr. Reed urged the crowd at the Waldorf to do everything possible to ensure Mr. Bush's re-election, especially reaching out to acquaintances at their "churches, veterans halls and rotary clubs." In the last election, he warned, "we got out-hustled the last weekend."
Other Christian conservatives at the convention were already doing their part. At a hotel near the convention, the independent film production company, Grizzly Adams Productions, was screening a film dedicated to reaffirming Mr. Bush's credentials as a sincere evangelical Christian and to criticizing the separation of church and state.
A recurring theme of the film is that Mr. Bush's opponents dislike him mainly because of his forthright faith. "The notion that our leaders should have God in their life has suddenly become threatening," a narrator says.
"Will the faith of George Bush be sufficient to keep us in God's hands today?" the film concludes, "Perhaps if we all join our faith to his."
THE RELIGION ISSUE
A Call to 'Win This Culture War'
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: September 1, 2004
At a closed, invitation-only Bush campaign rally for Christian conservatives yesterday, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas called for a broad social conservative agenda notably different from the televised presentations at the Republican convention, including adopting requirements that pregnant women considering abortions be offered anesthetics for their fetuses and loosening requirements on the separation of church and state.
"We must win this culture war," Senator Brownback urged a crowd of several hundred in a packed ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, reprising a theme of a speech by Patrick J. Buchanan from the podium of the 1992 Republican convention that many political experts say alienated moderate voters in that election.
Called "the Family, Faith and Freedom Rally" in e-mail invitations sent to Christian conservatives in New York for the convention, the event was organized by the Bush-Cheney campaign "to celebrate America and President George W. Bush," according to a copy of the invitation. The e-mail called Mr. Bush "a conservative leader who shares our values, who takes a strong stand for his faith."
Ralph Reed, a senior campaign adviser and liaison to conservative Christians, also addressed the crowd. Several campaign staff members, including the deputy political director, Christian Myers, attended, along with Timothy Goeglein, the White House liaison to Christian groups. One invited participant said the rally, which was closed to the news media, was the main event sponsored by the campaign for social conservatives attending the convention.
The rally struck a very different tone from the speakers behind the lectern inside the Republican convention, where talk of national unity and cultural inclusiveness has been the rule. Last night, Mr. Brownback himself spoke on the subject of the president's compassionate conservatism and efforts to alleviate AIDS. "A fundamental principle of our democracy and our Republican Party is respect for the inherent dignity, equality and sanctity of every human life," he said from the podium.
The difference highlights a balancing act the Bush campaign faces in staging its convention. The spotlight on the party's national convention is a chance to project a welcoming, pluralistic face to moderate or undecided voters. But, anticipating a close election, the campaign has also made it a priority to motivate the socially conservative evangelical Christians among its base to go the polls.
At the afternoon rally, Mr. Brownback singled out several subjects of special interest to conservative evangelical Protestants that have been largely omitted from the presentations at the convention, including opposition to abortion and same-sex unions, the plight of Christians and other victims of violence in Sudan, human trafficking, and events in Israel.
"I fear for the Republic, I really do," warned Mr. Brownback, a favorite of party conservatives. "We are accused of having a radical agenda for saying that marriage is between a man and a woman and it is the best way for children to be raised. It is not about being hateful. It is about being truthful."
President Bush, for his part, also opposes legalized abortion and recognizing same-sex marriage. But he has said he supports the separation of church and state and the ability of states to create other forms of recognition for gay unions. He has pointedly avoided deprecating gay men and lesbians or engaging in talk of a "culture war."
Representatives of the Bush campaign did not respond to several calls for comment on other aspects of the rally. But in an e-mail message to The New York Times, Nicolle Devenish, the campaign's communications director, criticized the newspaper for covering an event that "was closed to the press" as "not professional or appropriate." A New York Times reporter was invited to the event by participants who accompanied him.
Mr. Reed also addressed the crowd, recalling Mr. Bush's response to a question about his favorite philosopher during the 2000 Republican primary. "The President said, 'Jesus Christ,' " Mr. Reed recalled. And amid rousing applause, he repeated Mr. Bush's distinctively evangelical follow-up: "The president said, as only he can say, 'If I have to explain it to you, then you don't understand it.' "
Mr. Bush's most important accomplishment, Mr. Reed argued, was greater than any legislative achievement: "He has returned to us an office that was occupied by George Washington, Abe Lincoln, and Ronald Reagan. He has restored the honor and dignity of the highest office in the land."
But it was Mr. Brownback who laid out more specific policy goals. On the subject of opposition to abortion, Mr. Brownback argued that many women who choose abortion were unaware of what he said was the pain the procedure caused a fetus. His call for women contemplating abortions to be offered anesthetics for the fetus referred to a bill, "The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act," that he has discussed introducing in Congress. "We are going to keep moving this agenda forward," he vowed.
Advertisement
Mr. Brownback argued the importance to the culture of appointing more conservative judges, asserting that courts have conducted "a 40-year assault on the Constitution." Courts, he argued, had wrongly overstretched "separation of church and state" to mean "removal of church from state."
Urging action to alleviate violence in Sudan, he argued that the "strategic interest" of the United States was "that there are beautiful individuals there suffering, that many of you have prayed for for a long time."
"You are the heart and soul of the party," Mr. Brownback said. "And the press hits you all the time, like there is something wrong with 'faith, family and freedom.' "
Recalling the motto "In God We Trust," Mr. Brownback asked, "Is it still true? I say it is, and I say we fight."
Before the television cameras inside the convention, the campaign has relied on a combination of moderate, pluralistic words and resonant religious atmospherics to appeal to both moderate voters and conservative Christian at once. On the first night of the convention, for example, Senator John McCain praised Islam as an honorable religion - a statement many evangelical Christians consider heretical - and two Muslim speakers invoked Allah from the stage.
But at times the staging of the evening resembled an evangelical Protestant church service. Personal testimonials from the widows of Sept. 11 victims with heartfelt allusions to prayer were followed directly by a performance of the hymn "Amazing Grace," and other performances have included a Christian rock group, a church choir from Queens and the Boys Choir of Harlem.
Calibrating its appeals to both conservative Christians and more secular or socially liberal voters is a longstanding challenge for the party. Although Mr. Buchanan's 1992 speech may have alienated moderate voters by taking aim at the popular culture, political advisers to Mr. Bush believe his 2000 campaign failed to adequately mobilize conservative Christian voters. Mr. Bush's political adviser, Karl Rove, has often said that conservative Christian turnout in 2000 was about four million votes below his projections in the last elections, and anticipating another close race they are counting on regular churchgoers, who tend to vote Republican, to help Mr. Bush come out ahead.
Yesterday, Mr. Reed urged the crowd at the Waldorf to do everything possible to ensure Mr. Bush's re-election, especially reaching out to acquaintances at their "churches, veterans halls and rotary clubs." In the last election, he warned, "we got out-hustled the last weekend."
Other Christian conservatives at the convention were already doing their part. At a hotel near the convention, the independent film production company, Grizzly Adams Productions, was screening a film dedicated to reaffirming Mr. Bush's credentials as a sincere evangelical Christian and to criticizing the separation of church and state.
A recurring theme of the film is that Mr. Bush's opponents dislike him mainly because of his forthright faith. "The notion that our leaders should have God in their life has suddenly become threatening," a narrator says.
"Will the faith of George Bush be sufficient to keep us in God's hands today?" the film concludes, "Perhaps if we all join our faith to his."