Christian bloc holds key to GOP success

e-mail this story Dan Hoover • Christian bloc holds key to GOP success (09/18/04) • Has South Carolina been taken for granted yet again? (09/05/04) • 1976 GOP convention was last-minute battleground (08/28/04) • Tax reform now moving Senate race (08/22/04) • Bush slide, Dems' rise may imperil GOP House (08/15/04)

That time wasn't all so long ago.

Just as immigrants have assimilated into American culture, so too have once apolitical Christian conservatives been assimilated into the state GOP. The once mutually exclusive terms "Christian conservative" and "party regular" have blurred over the last two decades.

It's a major reason why the Republican Party has risen to dominance since the mid-1980s.

This comes against a backdrop of a Christian Coalition organization that is a shell of its former powerful self. Gone are the days when candidates waited, in dread or glee, for the group's "Voter Guide" to come out and reporters waited in churches to see who was in and who was out.

'87 fireworks

But in 1987, Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson, the Coalition's founder, was running for the Republican presidential nomination and religious conservatives were flocking to his organization and into the GOP.

It came to a head during the party's convention in Columbia, when regulars, loyal to new Gov. Carroll Campbell, who was supporting then Vice President George H.W. Bush's presidential run, thwarted Robertson's effort to control the floor by blocking an effort to unseat the Richland delegation.

I wrote at the time, "The floor action was marked by repeated jeering from both sides, intricate parliamentary maneuvering, and complex motions that often left delegates unsure of how to vote."

Delegates went home, lawyers went to court.

It took a ruling by the state Supreme Court in June, rejecting a legal effort to overturn the decision on the Richland delegation, to end the matter and begin a slow healing process.

Crucial to GOP

To what extent Christian conservatives are energized this fall will have a direct bearing on whether Republicans add the state's second U.S. Senate seat to their trophy wall or Democrats stave off another low point in their political history.

In general, they are part and parcel of the state party's mainstream now.

"Oh yeah, without question," said Bob McAlister, a Columbia consultant.

"There was a time when the Christian movement once felt it had to set itself apart to have an influence, but the party has grown so much, it has integrated them so you don't feel obligated to identify yourself as a Christian conservative," McAlister said.

"Time heals all wounds, (but) the scars don't necessarily go away," said Buddy Witherspoon of Lexington, a Republican National Committee member.

"You get street-smart," but without abandoning principles, Witherspoon said. "It's just that you do what you have to do. It was thought in that day and time, you were there for a year or two. that's been proven to be wrong."

Differences linger

Anderson surgeon Henry Jordan was one of the early Christian Coalition organizers at the center of the 1987 spat as a Robertson backer.

Jordan, who has cut back on his own political activity, said fellow Christian conservatives have largely joined the GOP's mainstream, although "some economic conservatives haven't fully accepted us."

His own views on the value of the political arena have changed, Jordan said, having "come to realize that some of our problems are not going to be solved by politics."

To Bob Taylor, a Greenville County Council member and Bob Jones University official, Christian conservatives are part of the GOP's mainstream now, although few follow the party's views down the line.

"There are times when they're not really thrilled" and many don't approach an issue from the standpoint of whether it means winning or losing, he said.

Stakes high

There's a lot riding on the political energy level of Christian conservatives come Nov. 2, more so for GOP Senate candidate Jim DeMint than President Bush, an expected easy winner in South Carolina. Control of the Senate could hang in the balance.

With DeMint's contest with Democrat Inez Tenenbaum for the seat of retiring Democrat Ernest F. Hollings likely to be much closer, the Greenville congressman will need a solid turnout of the religious right.

For 2004, Christian activists are more energized for the presidential election than the Senate, "but that will still work to Jim DeMint's favor" in the U.S. Senate election, Jordan said.

Some are keyed up, some not, Witherspoon said.

"After you've been involved a good while, you're not sure the fruit of labor is what you hoped it is," he said. "Some get tired and frustrated; in the long run, they can't vote for the other party or candidate, but are they stimulated enough to want to go full speed?

Although Christian conservatives are largely satisfied with the imprint they've made on the Republican platform and issues, they're less than pleased with their ability to win elective offices, Witherspoon said.

Dan Hoover's column appears on Sunday. He can be reached at (864) 298-4883 or toll-free at (800) 274-7879, extension 4883, and by fax at (864) 298-4395.