The ‘Splintering’ Social Right

The decision of several leading “religious” or “social” conservative leaders to endorse different GOP presidential hopefuls — for different reasons — is interesting, but shouldn’t be taken as a sign that they won’t be united once the struggle for the nomination is over.

Most social conservatives who make up a significant wing of what we right-wingers like to call the “movement” (and Hillary likes to refer to as the “vast right-wing conspiracy”) are trying, like the rest of us, to select from a less-than-perfect group of candidates the most viable contender, the one we believe most likely to advance our shared political agenda if ever elected president.

My friend Paul Weyrich has made it clear that his support for Romney is based on just such a calculation and because he wants to deny the nomination to Rudy Giuliani if possible.

Pat Robertson obviously believes Rudy’s promises on judges, and his focus on the abortion question and feeling that the former New York mayor might be best positioned to defeat Hillary makes him a logical choice.

Sam Brownback is a senator and has worked with John McCain (Ariz.). Most conservatives who oppose McCain do so for non-ideological reasons not shared by the Kansas senator, and both he and McCain can and do argue.

The bottom line is that each of these “leaders” can make a case for their endorsement, and their differences put the lie to the hope of some and the fear of others that social and religious conservatives are a bunch of mindless automatons marching in lockstep on all issues.

The fact is, however, that none of them can “deliver” major segments of the communities of which they are a part simply through such an endorsement. What the endorsements do reveal is their thinking, and by doing so will strengthen the conviction of non-leaders already thinking along the same lines.

This is certainly something they and most political “leaders” recognize. Few voters in our society can be led around by the nose. Ultimately, if the GOP candidates want broad support from the community of voters they hope these endorsements will appeal to, they are going to have to win that support themselves because no one is in a position to “deliver” it.

Keene is chairman of The American Conservative Union, whose website can be accessed here.