THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VI, Issue # 223, October 22, 2004
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
JOHN KERRY'S REAL REGARD FOR RELIGION
By Christopher G. Adamo
JOHN KERRY'S TRANSPARENTLY HYPOCRITICAL & DISINGENUOUS UTTERANCES DURING THE LAST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE OF
2004, INCLUDING HIS CLUMSY REFERENCE TO MARY CHENEY & HIS GRATUITOUS INVOCATION OF SCRIPTURE THROUGHOUT THE
DEBATE -- KERRY'S TRUE VIEW OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH: AN IRRELEVANCY TO LIFE IN THE REAL WORLD, SOMETHING
TO BE EMBRACED OR DISCARDED JUST LIKE ANY OTHER POLITICAL POSTURE, AS EACH GIVEN SITUATION MIGHT WARRANT
FULL STORY:
By now, it should be painfully apparent, even to the dullest of observers, that presidential “debates” aren’t about debating at all.
Rather, they have become forums from which certain candidates, assisted by not-so-unbiased “moderators,” might possibly remake
their public image or cement a certain notion regarding their opponents at the last minute, and on a grand scale.
Consider some pivotal comments made during presidential debates of recent decades. Perhaps, the most memorable blunder by then
President Jimmy Carter was his awkward and blatantly concocted reference to his daughter Amy’s opinion on nuclear proliferation.
Clearly, her inclusion in the discussion had nothing to do with the subject at hand, but instead was the result of a previously
orchestrated plan by Carter to contrast himself in the role of compassionate “family man,” as opposed to Reagan, the maniacal
warmonger.
Not only did Carter overplay this tactic, eventually resulting in Reagan’s completely disarming “There he goes again.” observation,
but once the debate had ended, Carter was faced with the inevitable fallout over his virtual pronouncement of his teenage daughter
as chief of America’s nuclear policy.
In a similarly transparent statement, Michael Dukakis sought to dispel public concerns over his excessively lenient law enforcement
practices during the 1988 debate with the Senior President Bush. Dukakis flatly stated, “Everybody knows I’m tough on crime.” The
absurdity of his words, along with the nearly universal laughter from those in attendance, did much to obliterate any credibility he
was hoping to establish on this issue.
Having not learned his lesson, Dukakis soon thereafter engaged in an equally futile attempt to prove his prowess as a strong military
leader by riding around in an M-1 tank for a campaign commercial. Looking ridiculous at best, his credibility deficit was thereafter
irreparable, and Bush ended up handily winning that year’s election.
Though far more aggressive in their efforts to mischaracterize George W. Bush with bogus accusations of sinister plans to reduce
Social Security and reintroduce the draft (among other conspiracies), John Kerry and John Edwards find themselves in a similar
quandary, having no standing whatsoever with churchgoing Americans and committed Christians. Thus they have been compelled
to resort to the kinds of political antics in which their predecessors engaged. So far, the results have been every bit as dismal.
In last week’s debate, Kerry was just as clumsy and premeditated when he suddenly digressed into a commentary on Vice-President
Dick Cheney’s daughter who, Kerry reminded all of us, is a lesbian. Kerry’s not-so-subtle motive was glaringly obvious. But
ultimately, it indicated far more about Kerry’s warped perception of the nation’s Conservative Christians than about any irregularity
in Cheney’s family arrangements.
Considering that John Edwards also somehow happened to make mention of Mary Cheney’s lifestyle, an obvious pattern emerges.
While many political analysts correctly point out that Kerry and Edwards are engaged in a ploy to alienate the “religious right” from
Cheney, and thus from Bush, some background on this situation shows why their plan will ultimately backfire. Kerry and Edwards
are fully aware of the approximately four million Evangelical voters who didn’t vote for Bush/Cheney in 2000, though they had been
fully expected to do so.
What Democratic Party strategists obviously do not comprehend is why those Evangelicals opted to stay home on Election Day. It
was not a matter of mere fear or superstition that alienated them from the Republican ticket. Rather, they were responding to a
consistent pattern, by the Bush/Cheney campaign, of soft peddling the moral and social issues of concern to them.
From stem-cell research to RU-486 to same-sex “marriage” to “compassionate Conservatism,” the subdued and often ambiguous
tones of Bush and Cheney caused considerable uneasiness among Christian Conservatives. However, since the President’s
inauguration, his comparative steadfastness in this area has dispelled much of their anxiety. And, as the stark choices for President
face them in 2004, no mere “buzzwords” of alarmism from the Kerry campaign will stampede them from the Republican camp.
Furthermore, Kerry’s ham-fisted reference to Mary Cheney, combined with his gratuitous invoking of Scripture throughout the
debate, accurately conveys his true view of the Christian faith. Ultimately, it is an irrelevancy to life, to be embraced or discarded
just like any other political posture, as each given situation might warrant.
If Kerry and Edwards possess so little understanding of the Judeo-Christian foundations upon which this great nation was forged,
they cannot possibly comprehend the nature of militant Islam that now seeks to annihilate it.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Politics & Political Competition
American Government & the U.S. Presidency
Christopher G. Adamo is a freelance writer who lives in southeastern Wyoming and works in the field of industrial instrumentation.
He is actively involved in Wyoming's political process, serving as a delegate to successive Wyoming State Republican Conventions
and as a member of the Wyoming State Republican Central Committee. He has assisted Republican candidates for local and state
legislatures and for the United States Congress. His articles, which appear regularly in The Progressive Conservative, U.S.A.,
and on a number of other websites, reflect a major concern with the damage being done to Conservatism and Conservative causes by
the Liberal Leftist faction in the Republican Party as well as by the much larger and more powerful Liberal Leftist faction in the
Democratic Party. During the early and middle 1990s, Adamo was Editor of the Wyoming Christian Coalition's official news organ,
The Wyoming Christian. Adamo maintains his own Internet website, which is located at
www.chrisadamo.com.
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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