The Christian Right Doesn’t Exist

Just ask Mike Huckabee

One of the deepest and most egregiously incorrect political myths of recent years – actually dating back to the 1980s – is that there exists a monolithic block of voters known as the “Christian Right.” This myth was formed by the left and the mainstream media in response to the victory of the Reagan Coalition of the 1980s.

There are actually two myths that cover the same ground. In one, the nefarious Richard Nixon conceived of a strategy to take the South back from the Democrats by appealing to their deep racism. How else could one explain the fact that increasing numbers of Southern whites began to vote Republican in the 1970s, a trend which continues to this day?

The second part of this myth posits that there arose in the 1980s a nefarious organization of Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals who sought to drag religion into American politics – for the first time – thereby corrupting it in unprecedented ways. This group – whose face was first the Moral Majority, then Pat Robertson, then the Christian Coalition, then Focus on the Family and a host of others, soon became known generically as the “Christian Right.”

In reality these two myths represented the same basic group of people. They were significantly, but by no means predominantly, Southern. They tended to have a traditional American faith that was considered completely unexceptional prior to the 1,970s. They were not apolitical, per se, they were just ordinarily political folks in the sense of showing up at the polls to vote. They tended to be conservative by temperament, and traditional in values, but they would not be considered especially “conservative,” right-wing or libertarian when it came to policy substance. They tended to vote Democrat. And they were no more and no less racist than other Americans of their day.

They probably would have stayed happily voting for Democrats, except that the 1960s radical revolution which transformed the American left turned the Democratic Party into a dedicated enemy of the values they held dear. The left redefined the rules of party membership to demand obeisance to the radical social agenda: feminism, the celebration of the narrow sexual self – including homosexuality – over virtually all other values, a deep hostility to formal or organized religion, a fondness for the sort of social engineering guaranteed to disrupt the lives of average citizens. Faced with this assault, these traditionally-oriented Americans began to shift allegiance to the party that promised to defend their values against the left. Their last gasp as a Democratic force was in getting Jimmy Carter elected President in 1976. By the time 1980 rolled around the party was too hostile to keep them. They became part of the Reagan Coalition, and soon evolved into the “Christian Right” of myth.

Why is it mythical? Because there is not a whole lot “right wing” about many of the people or organizations. Their conservatism consists largely of holding standard-issue values that were completely mainstream until the 1970s, including religiosity, traditional moral views, and a love of country. These are indeed important strands in the conservative tapestry, but there are many other aspects of the “Christian Right” that are completely consistent with their Democratic roots. They are not, for example, inherent fiscal conservatives. There is nothing about tax and spend that is in conflict with their basic worldview. In a similar vein, they are not especially “small government” or libertarian. They resist government intrusion when it threatens their values, but are not especially shy about using government to promote good ends. And they can display a populist streak that tends to be anathema to the Burkean conservatism of the intellectual right.

The rise of George W. Bush – with his trademark “compassionate conservatism” – marked the first real effort to create a distinct identity for this new and powerful population. And the recent surge of Mike Huckabee in the Presidential primaries shows that it is a force to be reckoned with. Huckabee is the former Republican Governor of Arkansas, but if one takes values off the plate, he could easily be a Democrat. He would be a Democrat had the Democrats not foolishly booted people like Mike Huckabee out of the party.

The media and the left have convinced themselves and many average Americans that being pro-life means being “extreme right wing.” Because of this it has been unable to take advantage of what is really an outstanding political opportunity. If the Democrats were to return to a deliberate neutrality on values issues I think we would all be shocked at the potential electoral shift that might occur.

Huckabee is just a hint.

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