What a relief it is to see Dan Quayle and other 1996 Republican presidential hopefuls publicly chumming again with Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition and its “family values” platform. I feared that Quayle and company might learn from past mistakes and attempt a less public courting of this coalition.
Does the religious right think it’ll convince most Americans that the GOP has a lock on “family values” when it has been the Democratic Party that has advanced a real pro-family agenda, including civil rights, equal opportunities and pay for women, some increases in the minimum wage and a Family Leave Act? When did the GOP or the Christian Coalition at least attempt a meaningful dialogue on access to and the cost of health care?
The most prominent “values” the Christian Coalition appears to offer is its consistent gay-bashing and a not-so-subtle tendency to play on racial and ethnic fears. Let’s hope Americans see that the marriage of convenience between the GOP and the Christian Coalition leads to the same end it did in 1992-defeat at the polls.
