One of the most controversial and successful figures of late 20th century politics wants to expand his brand to the 21st.Let me make a suggestion. Don't try to create this organization to cater to or please the Republican Party. That would be a mistake, because the Party leadership doesn't seem to want much involvement from conservative Christians.
Ralph Reed believes conservative voters of faith need a Christian Coalition 2.0.
And the man once dubbed the “right hand of God” by Time magazine is returning to the arena where he had his greatest success to try and make it so.
“This is not going to be your daddy’s Christian Coalition,” Reed said in an interview to describe his new venture, the Faith and Freedom Coalition. “It has to be younger, hipper, less strident, more inclusive and it has to harness the 21st century that will enable us to win in the future.”
If so, perhaps this really will be a new start. After all, when Reed ran the original Christian Coalition from 1989 to 1997, he famously warned enemies they wouldn’t know what hit them “until you’re in a body bag.”
But, it’s been a decade since Reed left that stage, and he has suffered embarrassments and defeats the past few years.
Now, Reed wants back in. And, judging from the 2008 national elections, Republicans could use the help. But questions remain: Do Republicans need or want Reed’s new group? And can Reed still deliver it if they do?
Reed says the answer to the first question is in the 2008 election results. The GOP was out-hustled, out-spent and out-organized in key states, Reed said. The party needs what he delivered in the 1990s, but with a 21st century update.
“Even though I’ve been doing other things, this is kind of like Steve Jobs returning to Apple,” Reed said.
When Jobs left the company he founded, Apple foundered. After he returned, Apple grew into an iconic firm that has captured the public’s attention in ways that all other tech firms wish to emulate.
“You have to reinvent it,” Reed said. “It’s the political analog to the iPod and the iPhone. It would be cool. It would be transformative. It would transform our politics and bring younger people to our ranks. All of those are critical imperatives.”
Make this organization cater to conservatives. Even conservatives who don't self-identify as Christians could be attracted to something like that and that's a really large group of people. If the organization succeeds in developing a large grassroots operation, the GOP will have no choice but to embrace it and listen to it. They will not be able to marginalize it and still win elections.
Make the GOP come to the Christian Coalition, not the other way around.
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4 comments:
Yes! We don't need the Lindsay Grahams.
"Make the GOP come to the Christian Coalition, not the other way around."
As long as it is truly conservative, I'm in. The GOP of today would have to move from the center-left to the right to be truly conservative; I'd guess that only some of the current GOP would make that move. The rest might just as well move farther left of center.
Hip and cool is not necessarily a draw:
I went through the Christian Rock stage of my life in jr. high when FM 106.3 was KYMS (Eagle). It switched formats about the same time my radio gave up the ghost, so I really didn't have anywhere to turn that was really inspiring.
Now, whenever I pick up a Christian Times/Examiner and look at the bands that are advertised, it seems like they're just "cookie cutting" the secular market. I don't really want anything to do with it.
Thus, the conservatives and Republicans should be careful how they rebrand themselves.
Oh, I have loved Sen. Graham! His questioning of Sotomayor was the one real moment in the hearings. Yes, he was supportive of her -- yet in a conservative way, respecting the Constitutional perogative of the president to choose nominees with "advice and consent." Without the civility of the GOP, Congress would be a vipers' nest for which Dems are likely to demonstrate statesmanliness?
Is the conservative movement weakened by civility in the GOP? No. The left (which has taken over the Dems, let's don't call them "liberal" anymore. That's so old fashioned) has taken the Democrat party captive. They are its Taliban. And they're a turn off. Let them over-reach (as they show every indication of doing) and they'll put the noose around their own necks.
Human nature hates being ordered around. I cannot believe that Americans are fundamentally different today. They'll get sick of these leftists once the public realizes what's really going on.
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