The theocrats are upset that the Republicans aren't moving fast enough to set up the U.S. as a Christian Dominionist nation. They're making noises that Republicans who want to be elected this fall had better shape up or they might find horse's heads in their beds:
Social-conservative groups have warned Republicans that their voters feel unappreciated and frustrated with Congress and that the party must get more aggressive on such values issues as marriage, human cloning, religious freedom and abortion if they want a decent turnout from the conservative base in November.
"That message has definitely been conveyed," said Jim Backlin, vice president for legislative affairs at the Christian Coalition.
The House and Senate are expected to vote this year on a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, and Mr. Backlin said a recent meeting with Republican leaders leaves him confident that the Senate also will vote for the first time on a few key pro-life bills.
Leading conservative activists have been sounding off lately, frustrated that since 2004, when their voters turned out in force to help President Bush win re-election, the Republican Party has backed off the values issues. A constitutional amendment against homosexual "marriage" failed in 2004 to get the required two-thirds majority in both houses.
"I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Let's address values issues," wrote conservative activist Gary Bauer last week in a memo to friends and supporters, noting that 19 states have amended their state constitutions to protect marriage with an average approval vote of 70 percent, yet many lawmakers still shy away.
"What I don't get is, why there is so much reticence on the part of our public servants to defend normal marriage beyond an obligatory press release or applause line in a stump speech?" he said.
Maybe because they aren't a bunch of closet cases like you are and they realize that gay marriage doesn't make them any less married? Just a hunch.
A Family Research Council poll released last week found that 63 percent of social-conservative voters think Congress has not acted on a pro-family agenda on such issues as marriage, abortion and broadcast decency.
"In the Republican Party in general, when it comes to Christian conservatives, we don't exist except during election years," said Tom McClusky, acting vice president for government affairs at the FRC.
[snip]
Much of the conservative anger is directed at the Senate, the activists said. Mr. Backlin said that out of 400 Senate votes in 2005, only one was even moderately important to his group. Mr. McClusky said that three years after the Janet Jackson Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction" halftime incident, the Senate has yet to act on TV decency.
And amazingly, the world is still spinning on its axis, despite the Boob of Doom. Imagine that.
There's also talk in the Senate about taking action against what some conservatives see as a judicial attack on the Pledge of Allegiance because of the phrase "under God," one Senate Republican aide said. The House passed such a measure in 2004.
"Just those three alone -- marriage, abortion and religious freedom ... that would be really exciting to our grass roots, and it'd probably ensure that the Republicans keep the House and Senate," Mr. Backlin said
And that's all they care about, really, isn't it? That women should know their place, that they not have to look at gay people, and that they be able to shove their religion down everyone else's throats? The fact that America is bankrupt, that peak oil is real, and that the foreign investors on whom we depend to finance Bush's debt are royally pissed off (thank you, James Wolcott) doesn't matter, as long as this bunch of medieval perverts and neurotics doesn't have to look at two men kissing or at a woman's breast on television.
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