- A mood of elation permeated the ranks of evangelical
Christians in the United States yesterday as it became clear that the election
marked a watershed moment for their chances of implementing a conservative
moral agenda - above all on the issues of abortion and gay marriage.
-
- Buoyed by exit-poll results suggesting that moral issues
had weighed on voters' minds even more than terrorism, activists vowed
to use their victory to push the second Bush administration to ban same-sex
unions at a federal level and to move the supreme court to the right. "I
think it's quite possible this could be a turning point," said Peter
Sprigg of the Family Research Group lobbying organisation.
-
- "We're seeing from the exit polls that conservative
Christian voters turned out in record numbers ... so we certainly will
be pressing for action on key items of our agenda, and we will not be shy
about claiming that our influence was significant in the outcome of the
election."
-
- In a post-election memo obtained by the New York Times,
Richard Viguerie, a rightwing direct-mailing campaigner, issued a warning
to the Republican party. "Make no mistake - conservative Christians
and 'values voters' won this election for George W Bush and Republicans
in congress," he wrote.
-
- "It's crucial that the Republican leadership not
forget this - as much as some will try ... Liberals, many in the media
and inside the Republican party, are urging the president to 'unite' the
country by discarding the allies that earned him another four years."
-
- Morality turned out to be a key motivator in an election
apparently dominated by the Iraq war, terrorism and the economy. According
to exit polls, 20% of voters put moral issues at the top of their list
- more than any other issue - and 80% of them were Bush supporters.
-
- "George Bush speaks our language of faith, and John
Kerry doesn't," said Carrie Earll, a spokeswoman for Focus on the
Family, an influential conservative group.
-
- "Right now, we live in a time when the economy,
Iraq and the war on terror are big topics - so the fact that social and
moral values took precedence over those, even in wartime, is an indication
that this is fundamental to who we are as a people."
-
- A decisive energising factor appears to have been measures
banning same-sex marriage, which passed in all 11 states where they were
on the ballot. Campaigners in Ohio claimed to have registered tens of thousands
of new voters intent on supporting a ban, implying that voting for Mr Bush
might have been almost an afterthought for some.
-
- "That certainly galvanised the church," said
Ms Earll. "The fact that there was a presidential election was just
another factor. People would have gone to the polls to vote on the marriage
amendment whoever was on the ballot for president."
-
- With several supreme court justices likely to retire,
the victory also leaves anti-abortion campaigners more hopeful than ever
that the complexion of the court could be shifted to eradicate the current
tenuous majority in support of "Roe versus Wade", which reaffirms
abortion as a constitutionally protected right.
-
- Self-destructive
-
- Holding open that possibility was a central part of the
Bush campaign's effort to energise its Christian conservative base and
reach the millions of evangelicals who stayed home on election day in 2000.
-
- But a leading moderate Republican told the Guardian yesterday
the tactic could prove self-destructive if pushed further. "If Bush
deliberately or inadvertently appoints enough judges to overturn Roe v
Wade, the worst-case scenario is that it's the beginning of the end of
the Republican party," said Jennifer Blei Stockman, co-chair of the
Republican Majority for Choice. "It wouldn't be long before the outrage
would spill into the voting booth, and it would only be a matter of time
before the Democratic party ascends to power that will last for a long
time."
-
- In pandering to evangelical conservatives, Ms Stockman
said, Republican strategists had "been feeding a monster who now has
the party by its tail". At least 75% of Bush voters do not consider
themselves evangelicals, she said. "The keynote speakers at the Republican
convention were all 'pro-choice' moderates, from Arnold Schwarzenegger
to Rudy Giuliani to [New York governor] George Pataki. Was that just a
masquerade or was something of substance communicated?"
-
- Conservative Republicans argue that talk of an imminent
reversal of Roe v Wade is fearmongering, though they are far from reticent
themselves in using lurid and shocking campaign messages.
-
- "On the immediate front, let's ban partial-birth
abortion," said Ms Earll, referring to the late-termination practice
to which Mr Bush has declared himself opposed. "Right now, we have
a supreme court that says it's a constitutional right to stab a nearly
born infant in the back of the head and suck its brains out."
-
- American views on abortion, however, may be less sharply
divided than the vocal campaigners for each side make out, said Corwin
Smidt, a professor of Christianity and politics at Calvin College in Michigan.
"The percentage of Americans who want total free choice has been going
down, but there has been no real increase in the percentage of people who
want to eliminate all abortion," he said.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1343992,00.html
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