Will Evangelical Christians Hand Hillary Clinton the Presidency in 2008?

Written by Steven Yates

Oct 10, 2007 at 12:00 AM

This column won’t be popular in some circles. I’m finally getting around to dealing with an issue that has been on my mind lately: the odd almost-schizophrenic relationship many (most?) leading evangelical Christians have with the Republican Party. After having slavishly supported the politics and policies of George W. Bush for the past seven years, leading evangelicals are now contemplating bolting the GOP if Rudy Giuliani gets the nod next year. At their recent meeting in Salt Lake City, James Dobson of Focus on the Family floated the idea of running a third party candidate. Dobson & Co. seem to have a total blind spot regarding a Republican hopeful who actually shares most of the rank and file evangelicals’ values: Ron Paul. Dobson’s distaste for Giuliani is well-known. “I cannot, and will not, vote for Rudy Giuliani in 2008,” he said last June. Nothing mysterious about that. The plain truth is, Giuliani is a social liberal. Twice divorced, he is pro-choice and has marched in gay rights parades, openly defying evangelicals on two issues they care about. He’s been photographed dressed in “drag.” Giuliani is also a would-be gun grabber. A globalist, he would fall into lockstep behind Bush in his promotion of an economically and politically integrated “North American Community.” I dare say that if the GOP elites insist on giving Giuliani the nod next summer, they do not deserve to win next November. And they probably won’t. Moreover, making the increasingly reasonable assumption that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic Party’s nominee next year, a credible case can be made that a Rudy Giuliani presidency would actually be worse than a Hillary Clinton presidency. How so? Chuck Baldwin has argued convincingly that a Giuliani presidency would be a disaster for this country. In a recent article he noted that a lot of Rockefeller Republicans would vote for Giuliani “because he will not be as prone to raise taxes as Hillary would be….  The only thing [Rockefeller Republicans] care about is their pocketbook. They are piranhas who only want to manipulate politics to feed their own selfish and greedy interests. They would vote for the devil himself, if he promised them more money.”  Baldwin is right. There are more than a few Republicans whose religion, literally, is money. They couldn’t care less about the Constitution or the rule of law or our national sovereignty, much less social issues. Their attitude toward illegal aliens, for example, stems from the realization that low wages translate into higher profits. The money-hungry crowd supported NAFTA and CAFTA on the grounds that these job-destroying trade agreements “help consumers” with lower prices even though consumer debt is now at an all time high, our savings rate has gone negative, our border security is absurdly lax given a supposed terrorist threat, and with globalist “dialogues” such as the SPP, our national sovereignty is in jeopardy!   So far this suggests that if evangelical Christians bolt the GOP next year, it might be a good thing! They will ensure that Rudy Giuliani never becomes president. With Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office, conservatives might get their act together for a change. It would be nice to see them oppose global corporatism as well as left-liberalism. The former has become a bigger threat to the nation than the latter during the Bush years, as corporatists have learned how to use (for example) the cults of multiculturalism and diversity to maximum effect during this period. Nevertheless, I do not believe plotting a strategy to abandon the GOP is the right thing for evangelical Christians to do. They have a candidate for the Republican nomination whose views and values closely mirror theirs: Ron Paul. Dr. Paul—who has delivered thousands of babies—is staunchly pro-life, although he holds (correctly in my view) that abortion is not a matter that can or should be decided at the federal level. Dr. Paul has consistently voted for smaller, less intrusive government at home, for a sound money system, and for a modest, non-interventionist foreign policy. He opposes the globalist managed trade being pawned off as “free trade.” He opposed the USA Patriot Act, the Real ID Act, and the Military Commissions Act. He thought the Iraq War was a bad idea from the start, since it was not a war declared by Congress in accordance with the Constitution; there was a mere “authorization” of use of force by the Executive Branch. As an elected official, Dr. Paul takes his oath of office seriously. He votes for the Constitution. In his view, what is not specifically delegated to the federal government by the Constitution is none of its business. Dr. Paul’s personal life—unlike that of many far more visible Republicans including obviously Rudy Giuliani—hasn’t even a hint of scandal. And—gasp!!—he’s been married to the same woman for 50 years! Right now, all the independents I know of—including Libertarians and Constitution Party members—have their eggs in one basket: Ron Paul. I can understand the corporate media’s blackout on Dr. Paul. He is the biggest threat they’ve faced in decades. Why evangelical Christian leaders are ignoring him is a mystery to me, although Alan Stang in his latest NewsWithViews.com column (“Corporate Christianity”) speculates darkly about their motives. Stang suggests that Dobson & Co. might wish to get behind a man named Foster Friess as their third-party contender. Who? you are doubtless wondering. Friess is one of the invisible, behind-the-scenes power-brokers—a billionaire investor and contributor to Republican causes. And a complete unknown whose chances of ever being president are much less than Ron Paul’s! Stang summarizes, “This is the man James Dobson and other celebrity Christians are allegedly thinking of as their third party candidate for President next year. What does this tell you? If true—and I am praying it is not—it tells me that Dobson & Co. (1) either have gone completely crazy, or (2) they are too stupid or ignorant to warrant attention, or (3) they know exactly what they are doing and are deliberately trying to destroy any chance we have to save America. There is no fourth possibility.” Imagine what might happen, though, if someone with James Dobson’s visibility in the evangelical community were to endorse Ron Paul. Evangelical Christians would immediately join the “Ron Paul Revolution” in vast numbers! In such a scenario, Dr. Paul might have a fighting chance of winning primaries next year! If he either wins primaries outright or comes in second or third, there will be no basis other than sheer corporate media bias and elitist fears for denying him major candidate status. Having raised over $5 million in a matter of weeks from individual donors all across the country, Dr. Paul has already become the proverbial elephant in the corporate media’s living room. I’ve often gotten the response: Ron Paul has no chance of getting the GOP’s nod next summer, so why bother? This sort of defeatism will get us nowhere except a nonchoice between a Hillary Clinton and a Rudy Giuliani (or the equivalent). And a Hillary Clinton presidency, since frankly, I don’t see any evidence that Giuliani can beat her. True, she is a lightning rod in some circles, but she is smart, shrewd, and a master strategist who has done reasonably well “reinventing” herself as a moderate in order to position herself as the Democratic nominee. She has a solid following among well-organized (and well funded) liberal Democrats. She will have the corporate media on her side and the politically correct academic intelligentsia in her back pocket. Giuliani will have none of this. I don’t personally know anyone who supports Giuliani. While that probably isn’t evidence of anything, I don’t see widespread support for him outside of money-hungry global-corporatist circles, and find myself wondering about the methodology of those polls that place him at the top of the so-called frontrunners while placing Ron Paul’s support at around 2 percent according to a recent CNN poll.   Both the GOP elites and Christian evangelicals are snubbing Ron Paul. If the former ram a Giuliani nomination down our throats—and if celebrity evangelicals like Dobson divide the Republican base by leading an exodus from the party—Hillary Clinton will become president. Simple as that. I am starting to believe this is what the power elite wants. President Bush has already held meetings with Hillary Clinton to begin working out details of a transition from his presidency to hers. Among the concerns: will Hillary continue furthering power elite goals in the Middle East including unconditional support for Israel and interventionism generally, including the Iraq War where a Vatican-sized embassy is under construction. All indications are: yes, she will. She’ll be a good soldier, just like Bush has been. If evangelical Christians come to their senses, they will get behind Ron Paul. Their present neglect can only help Rudy Giuliani. Vocal support from evangelicals could lead to a solid showing for Dr. Paul in the primaries next year, something which if it happens will establish his electability. I do not know if a united, populist-style grassroots effort combining evangelical Christian voices with other independents including Libertarians (some of whom are hard-line atheists) is possible, or could obtain for Dr. Paul the GOP’s nod, but it might force a showdown between the populists and the elitists next summer. Such a show- down would draw the corporatist power elite out into the light of day where it will become evident to everyone paying attention what these scoundrels have been up to for the past hundred-plus years (Federal Reserve, debauching of the currency, the economic and cultural war on the American middle class, IRS, police-statism, etc., etc., ad nauseam). If that can be made to happen, We the People might have a chance to begin the enormous task of turning this country around regardless of who enters the Oval Office in 2009. That would be a victory worth celebrating! --------------------------------------- Steven Yates teaches philosophy at the University of South Carolina Upstate and Greenville Technical College, and is on the board of the South Carolina chapter of Citizens Committee to Stop the FTAA. The views expressed in his columns are his own, and do not reflect official views of any of these institutions or organizations. His latest book World-views: Christian Theism versus Modern Materialism, was published last year by The Worldviews Project (for more information call 864-288-0043). He is at work on a new book tentatively entitled The Real Matrix. His email address is: