Social conservatives have had bad models for political action. We've depended on two basic strategies, and neither of them work very well:Italics mine. The latter model is why so many of us are in constant despair of having been "sold out" by our Messiahs rather than recognizing them as men with strengths and weaknesses which we can play to or shore up, respectively. So we're always demonizing our own instead of working for victory.1. The Mass-Uprising Model. "The people will rise up and throw off their oppressors spontaneously." Well, it's nice when it happens, but it's hardly a plan, is it?
2. The Secular-Messiah Model: Join with others in the GOP to elect a godly man to office and then expect him to solve all your problems for you. This last model resulted in me fielding calls from reporters about whether or not I thought Bush was responsible for failing to pass a Federal Marriage Amendment — at a time when the poor man was 33 percent in the polls. Gay-rights groups don't behave like this. They understand it's their job to make it easy for politicians to do what they ask, not the other way around.
Social conservatives simply have not been in politics. We lack institutions that can defeat our enemies and directly assist our friends.
Of course this illustrates too how preposterous are the claims the GOP is ruled by the religious right. Spare me. The religious right is hardly in the game. Too many of us are what I've taken to calling Pickett's Charge Pro-Lifers. The only strategy we know --or even think is moral to use-- is affixing bayonets and charging. Sometimes Providence does permit situations where that's all that's left you; and sometimes Providence hands you the day a la Joshua Chamberlain & 20th Maine at Little Round Top. But it can't be the go-to play. Anyone see Amazing Grace? A perfect illustration of the point.
