For years, Christian conservatives have backed the GOP for a kiss and a promise. They usually end up with a kiss-off. But that screeching noise from under the GOP's big tent this year is the sound the religious right makes when it tired of turning the other cheek. In a warning as clear as the Ten Commandments, some of President Bush's most ardent supporters have told him to move the anti-gay marriage amendment closer to the top of his domestic agenda or they will withdraw their support for his Social Security reform.
Leading the charge is the Arlington Group, a newly formed coalition of religious leaders who backed the president in part because he claimed he'd fight for the ban. But Bush didn't even mention it in his inaugural address, nor was it listed in a 10-point legislative agenda Republican congressional leaders unveiled this week. The Rev. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, one of the leaders of the Arlington Group, took one look at the GOP agenda and ordered an immediate revision.
"If Republicans," Dobson said in an interview on the Focus on the Family Web site, "do what they've done in the past, which is say 'thanks so much for putting us in power; now we don't want to talk to you anymore,' they will pay a serious price in four or maybe two years." That's pretty tough talk. Considering the clout they brought to this last presidential election, you'd think they were in a position to demand what they want.
[The article goes on to suggest that the Christians have been duped, that the Republicans used them to get in power and are now giving them the finger. The whole thing makes me feel all tingly inside. It's like watching a fist fight between the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party: no matter who loses, I win by getting to watch two groups I hate hurt each other.]
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