The Blog Formerly Known As Vote '08

Hoo-boy.

Kathleen Parker, already on thin ice for her criticism of Sarah Palin during the campaign, may be setting herself up for a good old-fashioned stake burning among religious Republicans with her column today:

“..the GOP has surrendered its high ground to its lowest brows. In the process, the party has alienated its non-base constituents, including other people of faith (those who prefer a more private approach to worship), as well as secularists and conservative-leaning Democrats who otherwise might be tempted to cross the aisle.

Here’s the deal, ‘pubbies: Howard Dean was right.

It isn’t that culture doesn’t matter. It does. But preaching to the choir produces no converts. And shifting demographics suggest that the Republican Party — and conservatism with it — eventually will die out unless religion is returned to the privacy of one’s heart where it belongs.”

While I think she goes a bit too far in painting with a broad brush (”gorilla” “oogedy-boogedy” (?)) I think I agree with the point she’s trying to make. The problem with the approach of many hardcore conservatives is it is far too “exclusive.” The mentality of “you’re either with us or against us.” There has been far too much insistence that the party’s national-ticket candidates, not to mention those farther down-ballot, “toe the party line” on each issue, particularly each issue that deals with faith.

This had been a problem with Democrats for many years, especially on the issue of abortion. & look where that kept them from, say, 1988 to this year.

A sign of a strong party is a willingness to have a big tent. A sign of a weak party is a pronounced intolerance for impurity.

What do you think?

UPDATE:

Jonah Goldberg:

“For the record, I have no problem with arguments about how the GOP has become too religious. I ended my book with pretty much that argument. I opposed Mike Huckabee vociferously because he seemed the quintessential rightwing progressive imbued with a rightwing social gospel. These are all good arguments to make and they have good responses to them. But please drop the nonsense about how the G-O-D people or the Palin people are low brows and beasts. There are low brows and beasts everywhere, on every side of the ideological spectrum. Maybe if you got more ecumenical hate email you’d realize that.”

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