NPR: Reinventing the Religious Right

Reinventing the Religious Right

It was not the best of times. It may have been the worst of times. After the 2006 mid-term elections, it was a rough time to be a conservative. The Republican Party had lost control of both the House and the Senate. Several key conservative ballot initiatives had gone down in defeat. The president's rating was staggeringly low in the public opinion polls. And none of the presidential candidates on the horizon excited the conservative base.

This week, The Washington Times is running a three-part series on how social conservatives in America are trying to reinvent themselves and their political organizations. No one connected with either major political party believes for a moment that the conservative movement is dead -- far from it. But as the Times series suggests, the movement is in disarray.

This may be even more the case now that the Rev. Jerry Falwell, a longtime leader of the Christian right, has died suddenly. Falwell, a dynamic leader and organizer, will not be easily replaced.

Today's Times piece focuses on the anti-abortion movement, which is trying to regroup after significant defeats in 2006. Monday's piece looked at the state of what conservatives call "traditional values." One of the most interesting questions asked in the article concerned the religious conservative movement's "one-party" strategy.

More than a few conservatives are now wondering if this decision was a mistake, and that perhaps it's time for the traditional values movement to disentangle itself from the Republican Party and instead "play the parties off each other," as George Mason University professor Mark J. Rozell puts it, in order to achieve more of the movement's goals. (Wednesday, the paper will look at the movement's efforts to woo women voters.)

One last thought. Liberty University, which was founded by Falwell, is to hold its commencement ceremonies Saturday. The featured speaker is Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House. Gingrich has been broadly hinting that he will launch a late bid for the Republican nomination for president. Could it be that history has just presented Gingrich with the moment to catapult himself into the leadership of the Christian conservative movement?

3:22 PM ET | 05-15-2007 | permalink

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