Getting rid of the hardcore Religious crazys???

["Outlaw Country" Courtney T]

Both parties have folks who are hardcore Religious crazys the GOP has RINOS like Pat Robertson who are Hurting the GOP because it make peoples think the GOP are all hardcore Religious nuts.

Think it time to get rid of them??

[Suzanne]

This is not going to get you very far...and if you are a Ron Paul supporter, please cease and desist. Ron Paul is a right wing Christian. This kind of nonsense has given Ron Paul a bad brand.

[Jon from Western Mass]

Depends on who you consider 'hardcore Religious crazys'

The people rushing to interfere in the Terri Schiavo case definitely need to go, public opinion was overwhelmingly against them.

Abortion is at best a neutral issue for us, and I think does a lot of damage with educated, middle/upper class, non-rural people who otherwise would be interested in the GOP, particuarly women. This position also I think needs to go.

The opposition to gay marriage gets a lot of media attention, but I think polls and ballot initiatives show that this is generally a winning issue for us.

[James]

I think it may be encouraging at times to look at polls, but the Republican party is only going to lose more elections if they wet their finger and hold it to the wind as Reagan described the Democrats.

I agree that supporting a candidate that is no abortion but liberal or uneducated on other issues is less conservative overall than someone who accepts abortion should be left to states and have fiscal and foreign policy conservative views. We have to look at the whole package and decide who is the best fiscal, social and foreign policy conservative.

However, deciding Republican views based on polls would be a losing strategy.

[Jon from Western Mass]

We can't totally ignore them either. Obviously, this past election shows that something has to change. In particular, the total wipeout of the GOP in the northeast: in New England you have a block of 6 states without a single GOP representative, and many upstate NY seats have been lost by the GOP as well. This despite the fact that this area would demographically seem inclined to the GOP. The move of the GOP towards a more hardline position on religious/social issues has a lot to do with this.

[Terrence Abrams]

I agree with you Outlaw, and ol' liberal Suzanne has a lot of nerve telling ANYONE to desist! We need the religious right, but we also need to push back some extremist interventions of over-reaching by our religious right.

The Schiavo fiaso was terrible and Frist should have been chided by the party as a whole. The party needs to be pro-life, but take a stance that not all abortions are murder, which the more zealous still want to legally ban.

you are correct, we either table the issue for the states, or get the uncompromising religious elements reduced to vote with us or walk. I'd prefer them to reason with the rest of the party, but the pro-choicers are the only ones willing to compromise to a more right winged agenda, and the farthest right religious factions don't reason at all about thes issues.

Don't forget, Robertson makes a ton of loud-mouthed mistakes, just as he did as one of Richard Nixon's senior advisors.

[Jaye K. Curtis]

I think you should be careful before you label somebody a "religous crazy"....Christian Republicans have been the driving force behind the success of the party in the past. The platforms of NO ABORTION, and MORALITY are core Republican beliefs. It is the departure from these beliefs, and the total lack of accountability by the party leadership that has caused the recent debaucle.

Without these beliefs, we are no better than the left-wing Democrats.

[Jim Rock]

we do need a balance and there will always be a Robertson, this anti Christian thing is going to come in to play big time and soon. Christianity stands in the way of Socialism so I cannot even fathom how hard they will push. We need to prepare for a lot of hate coming at us like what has been shown already because of the Calif prop 8.

now the left is leaning hard on Isreal and backing Hamas more and more and I did not expect this so soon either but sure Isreal needs to stand their ground now while they still have time

the only danger ol Pat does is say things and lots of people say stuff , he doesnt have the voice he did during Reagan , and I would rather turn the channel on Farahkan than I would Pat, and that may just be the way it happens

[Michael Brennan]

If the "religious right" were to be kicked out of the GOP, there are not enough secular conservatives to carry any election. The Evangelical base of the GOP is its largest voting block and continues to grow. As with all people, we all make mistakes and push hard for things we do not have to push hard for. But to say push them out, not if you want to have a viable conservative voice left in this nation. The evangelicals will form their own party and be very engaging and could win the Presidency without the GOP, but that is not what they want. If you want to know how I know that, I am in the coalition called "religious right" or moral majority. Yes Dr. Pat Robertson has said weird things and yes he is still powerful in the GOP but he knows he cannot be the leader much longer so has given way to the next level of leadership.

["Outlaw Country" Courtney T]

This form the one who keep on posting the 9/11 Truth BS

[Worker Bee]

This is obviously a loaded question. If you are looking for perhaps the most promising way to invite African Americans and Hispanics into the GOP, it is religious devotion and social conservatism. I would not give that up lightly. The only issue that arises with social conservatives, just like other factions of the party, is when they step over the line of limited government and personal freedom. The Schiavo case is an example of that.

But the same problem happens to the other party factions--have you been enjoying the GOP's current version of limited government interference in the economy? And the Dems are far, far worse in the opposite direction. Take the "gay crazies" who are terrorizing the people who voted against Proposition 8. They are not looking for tolerance either, they are looking for societal endorsement of what most people believe is deviant sexual behavior.

On issues of belief, I think there should be two parts to the platform: support for the free exercise of religion, and opposition to moral relativism. Moral relativism is the attitude that there is no real right and wrong, or, stated differently, that everyone defines their own version of right and wrong. If you look for it, you will see its harmful effects everywhere, particularly Hollywood. And it is a core premise of the Dems, who think it's like a civil right or something that nobody should be allowed to judge anyone for anything or blame anyone for anything (except for having money, which is really just their excuse for taking it away).

[Michael Brennan]

The reason most of the liberals and media hate the "religious wierdos" is because they have been trying and failing to redefine terms like "conservative", "family", "marriage", "civil rights", etc.......
The group that has been the biggest thorn in their side are the evangelicals and those who subsribe to common sense. Of course they are going to paint anyone having a say against their agenda as bigoted and racist, it is easier to lie and label people than to be humble and talk to them to form coalitions.

[Boudicca]

Most folks outside the GOP view the party as being dominated by the hardcore religious right, to the point where the perception is that Republicans want to force every women to have an unwanted baby at the point of a gun and criminalize homosexuality.

The social issues should be off the national platform because, constitutionally, these contentious issues should be worked out at the state level. Some states will be more conservatives or liberal as they ought to be.

2 abortion initiatives were on the ballot on 11/4. CO had one to define life as beginning at conception and SD (or what is ND) had another anti-abortion initiative. Both went down. Pushing to define life as beginning at conception is a lose-lose for the GOP. Most folks, according to nearly all polls, overwhelmingly oppose late term or partial birth abortion but do in fact want a legalized form of early abortion. Women vote Democrat by a margin of 56:43 and considering that 53% of all voters are women, the GOP continues to lose by a wide margin the biggest voting block in America.

Following the constitution resolves a lot of issues but, then again, not really because what liberals can't get at the ballot box, they get by judicial fiat, and the power of the courts to override voter initiatives is quite common as well as infuriating.

But the religious right wants constitutional amendments to define life as beginning at conception and they want a constitutional amendment outlawing homosexual marriage. It will never happen. Even if R v W were overturned tomorrow, that wouldn't outlaw abortion but merely boot it back to the states. Frankly, I doubt that many states would outlaw all abortion under any circumstances.

The GOP needs to focus on economic issues, as well as the foreign policy issues that have decimated party ranks.