Forbes – Will Republican Culture Warriors Snatch Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory?

I was recently invited to speak at the annual Conservative Leadership Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, a regional red-meat gathering of the conservative faithful trying to help Republicans win back control of the government. Since I’m neither a conservative nor a Republican—nor faithful, for that matter, as I am a rather unabashed atheist—you might wonder what I was doing there. I’ll give you the same answer I gave the conference attendees. To have any hope of becoming a majority party, you ought to take a page from libertarians trying to make common cause with Republicans by focusing on economic freedom as a uniting cause, while setting the culture war aside.

The conservatives I met there are not the caricature often pushed in the mainstream media. Yes, they say grace before every meal. Yes, they take their religion seriously. And yes, their faith informs their behavior, language, and political beliefs. But this isn’t a bunch of old white racists seeking to disenfranchise minorities and send children to work in coal mines. This was a racially diverse crowd of thoughtful people concerned about the swelling power of Washington, the misuse of that power, and the fiscal disaster that awaits us if we don’t do something about it.

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