Growing up, my parents sent me to a largely evangelical school (in Alabama) from kindergarten through 12th grade. Usually that means receiving a subpar education, but this particular school actually had pretty great academics. However, you still had to endure the standard far-right Christian talk. At the time, I never thought I’d ever appreciate that aspect of the school, but as I watch the GOP primary race unfold this year, I do appreciate that I know the base of that party better than most.
I’ve been around generally sensible conservatives lately, those with absolutely no religious stake in the game that generally believe in more conservative ideologies than I do. Fine, I enjoy a rational conversation about that sort of thing. Not even to say they’re very conservative, but they certainly aren’t liberal. Anyway, these people having been saying “It’s Romney” since, like, forever, but I always protested saying “I know these people: they’re not voting for him”. And yeah, I feel pretty vindicated right now because, you know, the reason I don’t trust that party is becoming pretty clear right now as both conservatives and liberals scratch their heads at what is going on right now. And this is before we even get to the heart of the Republican party: the Deep South.
The problem is regional, religious, and ideological. Southern conservatives do not trust people from other regions, especially the northeast, especially Massachusetts. Massachusetts is the go-to example of the “northern liberal”, always. You don’t think people in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, etc are acutely aware of how other people in other regions view them? They know. They resent it. As a result, they don’t trust them. As for religion, I know in 2005 or 2006 I was explicitly told by someone who wasn’t really a “religious kook” that Mormons were looking to take over the country’s leadership. Add in that these same groups of Christians have been fighting against the LDS pushing to be grouped under the umbrella of “Christian”. Don’t forget these same people would have been the ones sensitive to claims about Obama’s religion four years ago. They’re being asked to believe it mattered four years ago and doesn’t matter now? Give them a little more credit than that. The GOP has basically underestimated their own base (or overestimated depending on your view) on that one. Finally, ideology doesn’t need much of an explanation. Romney’s record in Massachusetts is well known, and no, it doesn’t fall in line with what Southern Christian conservatives will endorse.
I’ve been right so far about this not being a cake walk for Romney. He can win in states that are pretty middle of the road, but if he cannot win those primaries yesterday, what’s going to happen when he gets down to my neck of the woods? The GOP as a whole represents the Christian Right pretty heavily, but it’s no secret that the South is where they make up the majority. Alabama went for Huckabee in the 2008 primary, for example. How do we not just expect Santorum to sweep the South at this point? The problems we’re seeing are a result of a party that threw their fate in with a group that is highly opinionated and uncompromising, and now they have to deal with the consequences (we all have to deal with them). Unfortunately, our two party system doesn’t allow this to be a quick evolution or split or anything painless. Instead, we’re going to keep seeing this for a while, I fear.
