When I saw that the RNC had advised Republican lawmakers that gay marriage is a “gateway” issue that must be supported to get young people to even consider supporting the party, I was amazed. I saw it as a huge middle finger to Christian conservative base. In other words, I saw it pretty much like this:
That division within the ranks of the religious right is clear even in their response to the RNC’s report.
On one hand, Wildmon’s American Family Organization, a particularly hard-line conservative Christian organization that owns 200 radio stations nationwide and runs an active grassroots network, has pledged to meet any attempt by the Republican Party to sideline its social agenda with revolt.
“The social conservatives will quit voting,” he said. “They’ll give up, they’ll be despaired. Those are the most loyal people to work for you because they’re energized because they believe their cause is something God stands for and that’s a pretty good motivator. And you take that away? You diss them? You tell them their issues aren’t important anymore? I don’t know who you’re going to be left with. I think you won’t have any troops out there. I don’t know how many country club people will go and walk door to door over the taxes issue.”
The RNC took another stance that startled me. They said that support for immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship was basically a gateway issue for Latinos that must be supported if the Republicans want Latinos to consider their other policies. That was a huge middle finger to their racist base. These two groups, the evangelicals and the racists, have some overlap but they are not the same. In fact, the strongest support for immigration reform on the right is coming from evangelicals.
To be clear, I completely welcome the RNC’s view on both gay marriage and immigration, even though I think it will help the Republican Party if they take this advice. But “help” is relative here, because the evangelicals really provide the energy in the party’s base, and without their commitment the party will suffer. The GOP is damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
