THE NATION'S PULSE SO: Will Grassroots Anger Sink the GOP?
Klein, Philip
THE NATION'S PULSE PHiLiP KLEIN Will Grassroots Anger Sink the GOP? The Toledo resident says that he has put up so many signs for Republican candidates over the past ten years that he is on...
...The United Church of Christ (UCC) took similar action and it seems that the Episcopalian hierarchy is also contemplating such a course...
...Christian churches and other Christian institutions prosper...
...MARCH 2006 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 51 THE NATION'S PULSE I N THE PAST, IT WAS EASIER f o r Re publicans t o blame Democrats for impeding the conservative agenda...
...Gratifyingly, most of the rank and file of these churches entirely disagrees with their leaders...
...A Christian embassy in Jerusalem represents the interests of Christians in Israel and serves as messenger about Israel throughout the world...
...He rattles off a litany of issues on which he feels that Republicans have failed to advance the conservative agenda, including securing the borders, restraining spending, making President Bush's tax Cuts permanent, and reforming Social Security...
...During the Reagan years, Republicans could always point fingers a t the Democrats who ran Congress...
...Israel, in little more than 50 years, has developed into an advanced and powerful nation...
...Would those elders recommend that their church divest from Spain for their "suppression of the Basques," from China for the "subjugation of the Tibetans," or from the Arab countries for their ruthless exclusion and worse of their fellow Christian citizens, the genocide of their blacks, and for the mistreatment of women...
...companies (Caterpillar, Motorola, United Technologies, ITT, and CitiGroup), which they claim are complicit in Israel's mistreatment and suppression of the Arabs under their administration...
...Thurber estimates that he has walked hundreds of miles passing out literature and knocking on doors as a volunteer on dozens of Republican campaigns in Northwest Ohio since 1991...
...True friends of Israel...
...As far as the robust Israeli economy is concerned, any possible divestment by those churches would not be much more than a pinprick...
...Christian institutions in Israel thrive and have the support and full protection of the government...
...But times have changed...
...The Toledo resident says that he has put up so many signs for Republican candidates over the past ten years that he is on his fourth sledgehammer...
...Its purpose is the research and pubrication of the facts regarding developments in the Middle East and exposing false propaganda that might harm the interests of the United States and its allies in that area of the world...
...In 2004, Thurbet devoted as much as 60 hours per week to political activism in this crucial swing state, a good part of which was spent directly on efforts to re-elect President Bush...
...Despite their frustrations, conservatives will still come out in full force for Republicans as long as Congress gets serious about advancing a conservative agenda this year...
...We have virtualry no overhead...
...Is "divestment" the new anti-Semitism...
...The United Nations had demanded that "Palestine," where strife between Jews and Arabs had been rampant for decades, be divided into a Jewish and an Arab state...
...Christian schools, "It is only the hypocritical leaders of certain mainline Protestant churches who...derogate the State of Israel...
...Today, American Evangelicals are the staunchest supporters of Israel...
...The Anglicans, the British equivalent of the Episcopalians, passed a similar resolution last year...
...But what is significant and important is that, in hypocritical self-righteousness, those church leaders have cloaked their antipathy toward the Jews in the socially more acceptable mantle of anti-Zionism or anti-Israelism...
...The addition of the prescription drug benefit to Medicare, the federalization of education, and the signing of the campaign finance law were just a few disappointments that conservatives endured during President Bush's first term...
...In 2000, they launched a campaign to divest from five U.S...
...A large Christian pilgrimage center is to be built in cooperation with American Evangelicals...
...This ad has been published and paid for by FLAME Facts and Logic About the Middle East P.O...
...In 2004, Yeager worked hard for President Bush, manning phones, stuffing envelopes, and knocking on doors...
...Jews fully reciprocate the love that the Evangelicals feel for Israel...
...The Arabs and other Moslems are not the only ones who do not wish it well...
...Fight the battle," says Gary Sheinfeld, 69, of Port St...
...The history of the Jews is a hard one in their relationship with the Christians, among whom they have lived for almost twenty centuries...
...If you lose it, you lose it...
...There were the Crusades, there was the Inquisition, there were expulsions from and persecutions in many countries, and uncounted pogroms...
...Almost all of our revenue pays for our educational work, for these clarifying messages, and for related direct mail...
...But the current level of disappointment "is deeper than it has been because it's gone on for so long and because it covers such a broad spectrum of activity," Keene says...
...the Arabs rejected it out of hand and, with the armies of five nations, launched the first of their many wars against the nascent Jewish state...
...During President Bush's first term, Republicans lost control of the Senate for a time and had to deal with the obstructionist.tactics of Tom Daschle...
...Thurber concedes that despite his dissatisfaction, he would still vote to re-elect the moderate Republican Senator Mike DeWine if Ohio Democrats nominate somebody too far to the left...
...Mike DuHaime, who oversees get-out-the-vote operations as the political director of the RNC, acknowledges that "there may be a sense of some frustration" among conservatives right now, but he says that it's difficult to forecast what voters' moods will be like in November...
...This support is largely based on the faith shared with the Jews that the land of Israel was willed by God to the children of Israel...
...But conservative angst reached a crescendo with the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court last fall...
...A lot of people just said, 'I don't want to risk having John Kerry in charge of the War on Terror,' but in 2006, it won't be John Kerry, it won't be President Bush," says Chuck Muth, president of the limited government public policy group Citizen Outreach...
...The Evangelicals believe that their end-of-time scenario will be hastened by the establishment of a Jewish state in that land...
...But he says, "I won't bust my tail for him like I did for Bush in '04...
...In 2004, the ability of Republicans to mobilize 1.4 million volunteers like Thurber was widely credited as the key to the party getting President Bush reelected and making gains in the House and Senate...
...His wife Millie, who served as secretary and treasurer, also resigned...
...Lucie, Florida, a longtime conservative who has ceased making donations to Republicans...
...That's fine...
...In contrast to the Evangelicals' solid support of Israel stand certain "mainline" leftists-oriented churches...
...It's been really frustrating for us...
...The Jews accepted this partition...
...T HE DISSATISFACTIONAMONG conservatives comes as lobbyist Jack Abramoff's guilty pleas and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's indictment have helped Democrats paint a portrait of a Republican "culture of corruption" in Washington...
...many others are hostile to the Jewish state...
...But with a strong majority in the House and 55 seats in the Senate, it has become harder for Republican leaders to pass the buck...
...It is a national election, but it's made up of 435 congressional elections and 36 governors' races and 33 Senate races...
...I talk to a lot of people, and the general opinion here in the Ozarks, which is pretty conservative, is that they're not seeing any action," Smith says...
...So what happens is you get this sort of circle where you can't get people to the polls because people aren't interested in working...
...It has done that despite almost unending war and having absorbed and integrated over a million immigrants...
...But the fear of a President John Kerry was all the motivation that Conservatives are often frustrated with their teaders, and even Ronald Reagan was criticized during much of his presidency for not being true enough to conservative ideals...
...But with many grassroots conservatives frustrated by what they see as an abandonment of conservative principles by Republican leaders, Republicans may have a tougher time motivating their base to volunteer in 2006, which could hamper turnout and swing close elections to the Democrats...
...Republicans don't necessarily need to win on every issue to gain back that support...
...But preciselybecause Americans are less motivated to vote in midterm elections, it becomes even more important to have an energized base...
...Conservatives are often frustrated with their leaders, and even tlonald Reagan was criticized during much of his presidency for not being true enough to conservative ideals...
...Who are Israel's real friends...
...It does not seem likely that peace will come in the foreseeable future...
...It is only the hypocritical leaders of certain mainline Protestant churches who, against the will and belief of their rank and file, derogate the State of Israel and promote the phony issue of divestment of companies that supposedly support its alleged mistreatment of the Arabs under its administration and the violation of their human rights...
...Church authorities could have prevented and stopped this genocide...
...It provokes their outrage and has also caused bipartisan condemnation in Congress...
...Larry Rutherford, 68, of Animas, New Mexico, first became involved in politics as an office clerk for Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign...
...national Republican organization seeking support...
...Sad to say, Pope Pius XII, who could have threatened with excommunication all participants in this crime, kept silent...
...Whether somebody is a fiscal conservative who has watched government spending rise at a higher rate in the past five years than at any time since the days of Lyndon Johnson, a libertarian Republican who saw the drive for Social Security reform abandoned without a fight, or a social conservative who has not seen any action on the Federal Marriage Amendment, there is cause for disappointment...
...But he is not interested in doing so again...
...I don't see a lot of people getting real interested in volunteer work," he says...
...But Rutherford recently took the drastic step of resigning as vice-chairman of the Hidalgo County Republican Party...
...If the base isn't motivated, the [get-out-the-vote] effort has to be greater, but it's difficult to have a greater effort, because you have to get volunteers from the base to get people out...
...And on issue after issue, we just feel frustrated," Last summer, conservatives watched as the Republican Congress passed the pork-laden transp o r t a t i o n and energy bills and went on a postHurricane Katrina spending spree...
...Jews and the State of Israel can rejoice in the solid friendship and the sturdy support of American Evangelical Christians...
...After the Republicans swept Congress in 1994, they could fault Bill Clinton...
...Given that this is a midterm election year, it is only natural that there will be less excitement among the electorate than there was during 2004's presidential election...
...It is punctuated by terrible pain that their hosts inflicted on them...
...52 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR MARCH 2006 You deserve a factual look a t . . . 97 Christians and I s r a e l Are Christians I s r a e l ' s supporters or i t s detractors...
...Conservatives throughout the country echo Thurber's disappointment with Republican leaders...
...Since last summer, Thurber and his wife have withheld all donations from the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee as well as any other AM THURBER, 39, CONSIDERS HIMSELF a bona fide grassroots conservative...
...Nowwe have the House, Senate, and presidency and the Republican base wants results," says Bobby Eberle, president of GOPUSA, a news, information, and commentary website for active Republicans...
...conservatives needed to go to bat for President Bush in 2004...
...But just fight the battle...
...He says he spoke to 1,500 to 2,000 people last summer and fall in public forums...
...We are the conservative people out here...
...It's a hard thing to analyze turnout in a national election that's not really a national election," DuHaime says...
...It makes one wonder, doesn't it...
...In 1948, on the ashes of the Holocaust, Jews created the State of Israel...
...Israel prevailed in that war and in all subsequent ones...
...It culminated in the Holocaust, in which one-third of the world's Jews were slaughtered...
...The perpetrators of this worst crime in history were Christians - Protestants and Catholics...
...The social issue conservatives have really been used, abused, and mistreated by this administration and every other Republican administration in modern times," says conservative direct mail expert Pdchard Viguerie...
...I'm doing this more in the form of protest just to try to get them to pay attention to what is going on here at the grassroots level, because I do believe there is widespread dissatisfaction with the way our representatives are conducting their business inside the Belt-way," Thurber says...
...It is a primary reason for America's friendship and solidarity with Israel...
...At this point, it is unclear whether any of these charges will damage Republicans the same way that malfeasance contributed to the Democrats' loss of Congress in 1994...
...The subsequent withdrawal of Miers and the nomination and confirmation of Samuel Alito could go a long way toward mollifying conservative dissatisfaction, but the legacy of the Miers nomination may endure...
...One solid friend of Israel came to the fore...
...Raymond Smith, 66, says that he has been heavily involved in Republican politics since 1990 and currently serves as the treasurer of the Texas County, Missouri Republican Party...
...It's more important, because it's harder to get people out," says David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union...
...Box 590359 _9 San Francisco, CA 94159 Gerardo Joffe, President FLAME is a tax-exempt, non-profit educational 501 (c)(3) organization...
...Philip Klein is aNew York-based journalist...
...Norman Yeager, 64, is the president of Las Vegas Townhall Meetup Group in Nevada, a grassroots conservative political organization with 178 total mem50 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR MARCH 2006 PHILtP KLEIN bers...
...Israel's unceasing efforts to make peace were unsuccessful...
...We are the ones that basically got [Bush] elected, and he's kind of ignored us...
...What are the facts...
...Also, the Roman Catholic Church, under the wise guidance of the saintly late John Paul II, has recognized its crimes against the Jews over the centuries and has asked for forgiveness and understanding...
...They want to see smaller government, lower taxes, less spending...
...But with scandal in the headlines, it means that Republicans mayneed the support of their base in 2006 more than ever before...
...He has turned in his tlNC card in protest and says he won't contribute any more money until something is done to control the borders...
...They enable us to pursue these goals and to publish these messages in national newspapers and magazines...
...And you can just do that so long before you really turn off the voters at the grassroots level...
...Your tax-deductible contributions are welcome...
...Of course not - it is Israel, the only democratic country in the entire Middle East that merits the condemnation of the leaders of those mainline churches...
...Many of the complaints that conservatives now have about Republieari leaders have been festering for a long time...
...On the forefront are the mainline Presbyterians...
Vol. 39 • March 2006 • No. 2
