David Weigel (bio) attended the Values Voters Summit this weekend and has written a series of reports for The Washington Independent:
Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) Chief of Staff: ‘All Pornography Is Homosexual Pornography’ Schwartz told the crowd about Jim Johnson, a friend of his who turned an old hotel into a hospice for gay men dying of AIDS. “One of the things he said to me,” said Schwartz, “that I think is an astonishingly insightful remark… he said ‘All pornography is homosexual pornography, because all pornography turns your sexual drive inwards.”
There were murmurs and gasps from the crowd. “Now, think about that,” said Schwartz. “And if you tell an 11-year-old boy about that, do you think he’s going to want to get a copy of Playboy? I’m pretty sure he’ll lose interest. That’s the last thing he wants! You know, that’s a good comment, it’s a good point, and it’s a good thing to teach young people.” [youtube video available]
Fear of Obama Agenda Marks First Day of Conservative Conference
Attendees were not overly concerned with any particular social issue. They felt attacked on all fronts. There were some warnings of the threat of gay marriage–mostly from Carrie Prejean, the Miss California who lost her bid to become Miss USA after saying she opposed same-sex unions–but angst about a social issue that had riveted conservatives for most of this decade was buried by worries about the other threats to American values.
Values Voters Embrace Libertarian Conservative Ideals
The merger of mainstream Republican Party rhetoric and the priorities of “Christian right” activists happened naturally for people like Johnson and Paulding. It was also politically astute for a wing of the conservative movement [the religious right] that had, in recent years, become somewhat toxic.
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“Lately,” said [Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas)], “I’ve found myself going back to a book that’s titled ‘The 5,000 Year Leap.’”
There were head nods and noises of approval from many members of the audience. That book, written by the late ultra-conservative scholar-cum-conspiracy theorists Cleon Skousen, had been rescued from 28 years of obscurity by Glenn Beck. Perry gave an accurate summary of its content, telling the audiences that Skousen “shares his views of the foundational elements of our nation, placing a special emphasis in faith in God–I think undeniably a source of America’s remarkable success. He asserts that natural law, God’s law, is the basis of our nation’s laws.”
The message got through to the activists who left Washington a few hours later. President Obama’s programs were failing because they were socialist, and defied the Constitution. Fealty to the Constitution was bound to succeed, because America’s founding document was divinely inspired. In gearing up for the 2010 elections and making political hay out of the debt, and out of government funding for groups like Planned Parenthood and ACORN, this was the logic that should guide their campaigning.
Terry Gross spoke with Weigel today on Fresh Air: follow this link and click on “listen”. Weigel, a conservative, may be engaging in some wishful thinking: in a straw poll of attendees, “Forty percent said abortion was the most important issue in terms of their voting preference, followed by protection of religious liberty (18 percent), same-sex marriage (7 percent), and tax cuts (6 percent), among other issues listed.”
Continuing the faith and American politics theme, yesterday we posted on the growth of the religious “nones”. Dan Gilgoff sees 4 Ways the ‘No Religion’ Boom Will Alter American Politics:
1. Secular voters will become an increasingly important component of the Democratic base.
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2. American politics will become more polarized.
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3. Republicans will have to choose between becoming a more overtly religious party and reaching out more seriously to the growing secular middle.
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4. If secular voters become more aggressively antireligious, the Democrats’ newfound faithiness faces big challenges.
Read it all.