Party, platform, and Palin: The triumph of theocracy in the GOP

By Michael J.W. Stickings

TNR's John Judis, in the Twin Cities for the GOP convention, explains Palin's appeal, and how McCain has sold out to the theocrats:

The convention's first two days have been a conservative love-fest for McCain’s vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin. McCain's handlers have also allowed social conservatives free reign in writing this year's Republican platform.

McCain strategists have tried to explain Palin's nomination as an attempt to secure discontented Democrats who backed Hillary Clinton. But that's not the refrain heard here among social conservatives who predominate among the delegates. They like Palin because she is one of them. And there is some reason to believe that McCain's choice was partly intended to mollify conservatives like James Dobson and Richard Land who were on the fence, but who, since the choice of Palin, have become considerably warmer toward McCain.

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The platform is a paean to social conservatism and diverges from McCain’s own convictions. It backs a Human Life Amendment on abortion with no exceptions for rape, incest, or a threat to the health of the mother; it backs the Second Amendment with no exceptions ("gun control only affect and paralyzes law-abiding citizens"); and it takes a position on immigration that would warm Rep. Tom Tancredo's cold heart. It focuses on enforcing "border security," rejects "amnesty" and "en masse legalizations," and promotes English-only legislation. Most telling, perhaps, it devotes very little attention to the Iraq war. That, too, reflects the disquiet of many social conservatives like [Grover] Norquist about the war.

McCain has always been much more conservative, and socially conservative, than his manufactured "maverick" image has led many to believe, but he's never really been much of a theocrat.

Once upon a time -- i.e., before he realized what he had to do to win the nomination (and before he sold out entirely) -- he loathed the James Dobsons of the world, or so it seemed, and the feeling was not just mutual but even stronger among them. But, as John Kerry reminded us last week, Candidate McCain is nothing like Senator McCain (or, at the very least, the former is a calculated exaggeration of the latter, with the candidate putting aside all pretense to bipartisanship and independence).

And now... well, look what's happening both to his campaign and to his convention -- and to the party that has selected him as its presidential nominee.

McCain may or may not have wanted to pick Lieberman or Ridge, but he ended up with Palin, a darling of the theocrats. The vetting process was, apparently, not much of one, and he picked her only after conservatives had threatened opposition to any undesirable pick. He may have wanted to look bold, but he certainly also wanted to appease the right, the theocrats, and he seems to have done so. As The Nation's Max Blumenthal is reporting -- and as Capt. Fogg mentioned earlier today -- the Council for National Policy, "an ultra-secretive cabal that networks wealthy right-wing donors together with top conservative operatives to plan long-term movement strategy" (with members including Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Grover Norquist, Tim LaHaye, and Paul Weyrich) basically vetted Palin on its own last week. Palin was obviously their preference, at least among the leading contenders, and, in the end, McCain went right along with them.

What's more, McCain has essentially turned the convention, his convention, over to the theocrats. Whether or to what extent McCain actually agrees with the party platform, and its elements, is beside the point. The point is that he has allowed the convention and platform to be taken over by the theocrats. The theocrats may already control much, or most, of the party, but now, in McCain's year, they have formal control over policy and the direction of the party.

McCain will accept the nomination on Thursday, and he will no doubt continue to hype his "maverick" image and phony independent streak, but what is clear now, more than ever, is that the theocrats have triumphed.