Evangelicals have been the most loyal GOP voters since Ronald Reagan brought them into the party in droves in 1980. They left their previous apathy or Democratic Party allegiance to vote for Republicans based on issues, not instructions from media appointed “leaders.”

Given that, I was quite amused at all the teeth gnashing by certain libertarian and/or secular leaning conservatives last winter when Dr. James Dobson and other prominent Evangelicals vocalized their opposition to pro-choice candidate Rudy Giuliani. I was even more amused at the wailing when Dobson announced he couldn’t vote for John McCain. My amusement was a mask for my contempt for people that have such a low opinion of Evangelicals (as well as Southerners and Christians in general) as to think that they follow pied-pipers rather than vote issues like the enlightened.

The wailing teeth-gnashers were convinced by “leader” statements and those ubiquitous between election polls that liberals put out to torture the political novices or those with memories that seem to wane every four years, that Evangelicals would abandon the party.

So, given that so many wrote off the Evangelical vote, and, hence, the election based on Dobson musings of “the moment”, I am expectantly waiting for the nervous nellies whose world is created anew each morning by the MSM and conservative chatterers, to make a U-turn and declare all is well after:

“I have considered the fact that elections always involve imperfect candidates … you always have to choose between two flawed individuals,” Dobson said on his national radio broadcast July 21. But Dobson also said there are several significant issues where he and McCain agree.

“As of this moment, I have to take into account that Sen. John McCain has voted pro-life consistently,” Dobson said. “… He says he favors marriage between a man and a woman. He opposes homosexual adoption. He favors smaller government and lower taxes and he seems to understand the Muslim threat, which matters a lot to me.

Therefore, I have considered the fact that elections always involve imperfect candidates — there are no perfect human beings — and you always have to choose between two flawed individuals…. I never thought I would hear myself saying this, but it’s where I am: While I am not endorsing Sen. John McCain, the possibility is there that I might.”

McCain supports embryonic stem cell research and has opposed a federal marriage amendment; although he has have left wiggle room on both issues and implied or said he could change. But he has sought to reach out to pro-lifers during campaign speeches; during one recent stop in Missouri he told the crowd that they could count on his “active advocacy for the rights of the unborn.” He also has stated his support for a proposed California marriage amendment, which Obama opposes.

In February, Dobson said he was opposed to Republicans voting to make McCain their presidential nominee and said with McCain and Obama or Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) as the nominees, he would not cast a ballot in November.

“There’s no doubt — at least no doubt in my mind — about whose policies will result in more babies being killed or will do the greatest damage to the institution of marriage and the family,” Dobson said. “I am convinced that Sen. McCain comes closer to what I believe.”

Dobson said that Obama is an intelligent and charismatic candidate who, on the surface, is an attractive candidate. But Obama’s beliefs on key issues, the two men said, should alarm conservative Christians.

Dobson said he thinks Obama is “more liberal and more extreme than most Democrats in the Senate.” The “best example” of that, Dobson said, is the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, which passed the Senate 98-0. Obama, then an Illinois state legislator, opposed a version of it on the state level. The bill would have given legal rights to babies who survive abortions.

Obama “was chairman of the committee who dealt with” the bill and “spoke against the bill, arguing for the right to kill those babies,” Dobson said. Obama has a position that “even his liberal colleagues don’t represent. This man is really far, far left.”

Dobson said the point of the program was “not to tell people how to vote” but instead “to ask people to think about the issues.”

So, who are the real mind-numbed robots, us Evangelicals, including the Cockstradamas among us that said last winter that Dobson would come around and that even if he didn’t, Evangelicals would come out in droves against an Obama or a Clinton, or too many of the conservative chattering class that follow the conventional wisdom story lines campaign season after campaign season, oblivious to the repeating pattern?

Evangelicals came into the GOP because Democrats’ economic policies were ruinous, they were weak on defense, and they favored judge made law that re-writes the Constitution, especially with respect to life and local control of public schools.

Guess what? They still care about those issues, and they still can spot a leftist a mile away or in Berlin. It was a bit harder in 1980 when one of their own sold them out, but it has gotten increasingly easier since, and the Obama is anathema with his 20-year pew-parked in a hate whitey America church.

Most Evangelicals are white and love America. hence the recent poll that only 31% of whites have a favorable view of Obama.

Dobson and friends wanted to make sure the GOP nominee was pro-life. They got their way. The way that got us Reagan and the Congress.

Evangelicals want America to reject liberals that attack the values they hold dear whether Dobson or anyone else lets his pride get in the way of the sanity they live by each day that sees all too clearly Ruth Bader Ginsburgs emanating from even moderate Democrats.

So, all you that wrote off the Evangelical vote based on an “at this moment” writ Dobson last winter, start churning out the crow eating essays and address them to Gamecock.

[Prepare for more as well, and all you that change positions each weak get not slack. Flip-floppers. smile...]

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns

Legal Editor for The Minority and HinzSight Reports

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