Rallying the troops...again...

The President's approval numbers are in the low 30s. Congress isn't doing much better, bringing fears of a Republican washout in the November election. Between Iraq, immigration and accountability for elected officials, Washington seems out of step with America on just about every important issue. What's a President to do?

Why, reach into the hip pocket and pull out a wedge issue saved for just such a rainy day.

The ironies of the current political landscape are amazing. On the one hand you have people afraid of the power of the "Religious Right," whose rhetoric seems to lace many a politician's speech. Many fret about the creation of "Jesusland" in the middle of the country. And yet, how many of the issues important to traditional Christians have seen progress since the Republican Revolution of 1994? Abortion? Not only still legal but accepted as after-the-fact birth control. Restrictions on obscenity in the public square? Hardly. Vouchers to allow more parental options for their child's education? Nah. Resisting the erosion of the nuclear family? Nope. The charge this nation is becoming a Taliban-like theocracy is laughable, to say the least. As posted earlier, the U.S. retains "a form of godliness, but denying its power."

And so the irony continues: by returning to the issue of banning gay marriage, Bush will both reinforce the left's fear of theocratic rule while cynically looking once again for short term support from Christians--who will be abandoned as usual after their faithful Election Day service. The blatancy of this crass emotional manipulation is simply staggering. At a time when our nation is facing existential issues of security, both at home and abroad, to wave this red herring and distract attention shows just what kind of non-leadership we have.

Even more disheartening is how effective the tactic is. In 1993, many Christians (including me) were offended by a Washington Post reporter who characterized the average evangelical as "largely poor, uneducated, and easy to command." While the quote revealed one of the few remaining acceptable editorial bigotries, it also carried an unfortunate grain of truth. The evangelical movement does have a sense of political naivete about it, leading to "single issue voting" that overlooks a politician's failures so long as the right language is parroted, sincerely or not.

Henry IV, a Huguenot Protestant, converted to Catholicism in the 1500s in order to remove objections to his becoming King of France. He's reputed to have said "Paris is worth a Mass." The fruits of the current administration would seem to confirm that sentiment is alive and well five centuries later.