Conservatives not the simpletons of left sterotype

Quin Hillyer:

It always was too facile an analysis to say that former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani was too liberal on "social issues" to win the Republican presidential nomination. The pundits who said that - and they were legion - believe in absurd stereotypes about the Republican party and especially about its "Christian right" activists.

This is not to say that Giuliani doesn't need to overcome some serious obstacles to secure the nomination. He does. His consistent spot atop the polls for virtually this entire year, however, shows that conservative Republican voters are not mere simplistic, predictable, easy-to-characterize sheep to be herded, not at all like the infamous 1993 caricature of the Christian right by a Washington Post reporter, who described them as "largely poor, uneducated, and easy to command."

Instead, no matter how you slice the particular subset - Republicans, conservatives, Christian right - they care just as much about a whole constellation of issues as do any other group of Americans.

Yes, Giuliani has supported legalized abortion, various policies collectively referred to as gay rights, and gun control measures. And yes, those issues will cause millions of primary voters to pull the lever for someone else. They are important, mainstream issues, not topics cared about only by some unintelligible cult.

But polls show a significantly large minority of Christian right voters supporting Giuliani in the primary even after being apprised of his position on the three most prominent social issues. The truth is that even the oft-caricatured voters of the Christian right also care about leadership qualities, taxes, crime, a strong defense, and the war against jihadist terrorists. Indeed, the prominence of that latter issue probably goes a long way in explaining Giuliani's popularity even among parts of the Christian right.

For good reason, Giuliani is seen as tough and competent. For good reason, he is seen as being a consistent opponent of Middle Eastern terrorists, once famously ordering Yasser Arafat to be ejected from the Lincoln Centre.

These things matter far more to the Christian right than one might imagine. The Christian right, or at least a very large percentage thereof, feels a particular affinity for Israel. After all, the Bible says that Jews are God's chosen people, and that Israel is their land. Those who vow to wipe Israel off the map, therefore - and who, worse, would attack us in the United States in part because of our diplomatic support for Israel - are seen as particularly dangerous and particularly to be opposed.

As background, it is a little-appreciated fact that back in the early 1990s when neo-Nazi David Duke was a serious threat to take a position of political power in Louisiana, the Christian Coalition in that state played a huge, energetic role in blocking, overwhelmingly, Duke's attempts to gain a real foothold in the state party organization and to garner the official party endorsement for two statewide races. Absolutely essential to securing their work against Duke was the publication of Duke's continuing history of anti-Semitic writings and actions. For the Christian Coalition, any man who so hated Jews just had to be opposed.

The flip side of that consideration plays in Giuliani's favor: anybody who can be trusted to support Israel and, most importantly, to battle with effectiveness and competence against those who would destroy Israel, is somebody worthy of at least potential support.

I hasten to add that it would be equally simplistic a mistake to attribute too much conservative support of Giuliani to this pro-Israel stance by the Christian right. I use it just as one example, of many that could be used, to explain how the issues of "God, guns and gays" are not the only ones that motivate the Christian right, or the broader conservative movement, or Republican voters in general.

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Giuliani is a flawed candidate to many, but he is one they trust on the issues that are most important in this coming election. He is someone they trust on the issues that the President can most effect. It is those issues that will get him nominated and elected.

Hillyer, better than most, also understands the Christian conservative support for Israel. Too many people go off on some Pentecostal vision of a second coming which is a much smaller subset of the overall support for Israel. His explanation also hints at their belief in a strict construction approach to the US Constitution which Giuliani also supports..