Well, it’s 1996 again and the Christian community who call themselves conservatives are ready to boot President Bush out of office if given the chance.
A battle line has been drawn and Bushrevealed.com, a web site devoted to revealing all of Bush’s mishaps, updated by Christians, is calling for his ouster. The site calls for Bush to repent and turn from his blatant sin of promoting evil through public policy.
Bushrevealed, would be a great site showcasing Christian “legalism” or as some might call it, fundamentalism.
Even critics of the president probably would not call Bush evil.
In 1996 Bob Dole and Jack Kemp came under similar scrutiny from conservative Christians because they were too liberal for them. At 17 years old, I argued with a Christian who was supporting Howard Phillips, a conservative third-party candidate.
The guy could not get over that a 17-year-old was telling him that by voting for Phillips, he was giving a vote to Clinton. Dole lost by a landslide.
Enter George W. Bush.
Supposedly politically savvy Christians are mad about the Medicare bill, multilateral actions of the Bush administration now proposed in Iraq and the immigration policy that gives immigrants benefits while in the United States and abroad.
It seems that these Christians have forgotten about the eight years of Bill Clinton.
The problem is that Christians who live in a world outside of the political realm simply do not understand how it works.
Local columnist, radio show host and former candidate for Sullivan County Executive Keith Spicer and I were discussing this problem Friday. We were talking about the crudeness of the political realm and virtue of the political philosophers. Leo Strauss describes this difference explicitly in his writings. Spicer said that it was impossible to act as the philosopher/king in the political realm.
The compromises that have to be made inside of politics are exactly what some of these radical groups do not understand. You cannot act alone in politics. It takes a constituency to pass bills or even get one to the floor. Roy Moore is a result of acting in unilateral matter. Moore does not understand the political realm and the timing of actions, he’s now off the bench and out of an important seat of influence.
Now less than 11 months from the presidential election, conservative Christians need to ask themselves one question.
If Bush loses, what’s the alternative?

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