Christians and the Republican Party, Part 1

I have been procrastinating, in regards to writing some of my thoughts on this subject. I will begin here to describe some of my current thoughts.

I am a Christian. I am a conservative, both socially and fiscally. I believe in a strong national defense. Currently, my political home is in the Republican party.

Conservative Christians became a force in the Republican party with the first election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980. A lot of Christians felt duped by Jimmy Carter in 1976, who campaigned as a born-again Christian, but governed as a social liberal. Dr. Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority, which organized a large amount of Christians in order to fight social ills such as legalized abortion. The Reagan campaign succeeded in bringing a large amount of socially conservative voters into the Republican column. It made for a winning coalition of business-oriented conservatives, old-line northern Republicans, small-government libertarians, and socially conservative Republicans, independents, and Democrats. Ronald Reagan won two terms with this coalition, which built a party strong enough to capture both houses of Congress in 1994.

This incarnation of the Republican party was able to hold the House for 12 years, and the Senate for all but a couple of those years. It was also able to impeach President Clinton (in the House), and elect George W. Bush president twice.

Now, on the heels of the loss of both houses of Congress, an increasingly unpopular war, and a looming presidential election in 2008, this coalition finds itself on thin ice. In future installments, I will analyze the implications, and the role of the Christian in modern-day American politics.

More to come....