Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 12, 1993 TAG: 9309120139
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
It was Buchanan and his audience of Christian Coalition activists that moderates blamed for George Bush's defeat last year, but the parade of 1996 GOP presidential prospects at the meeting was a testament to the Christian right's strength in Republican politics.
The weekend session also was the first test of the Virginia Beach, Va.-based Christian Coalition's pledge to diversify from its traditional social agenda. The sessions demonstrated the challenges of fulfilling that goal without alienating the religious conservative movement's core supporters.
From Buchanan's reception, for example, it was clear the Christian activists are energized most by conservative cultural issues.
"If a political party would turn its back on the 4,000 unborn children doomed to death every day in this country, then it is time to found a new party," Buchanan said, prompting a standing ovation. "We are a pro-life party, and we are going to keep our party pro-life."
The conservative commentator, who mounted an unsuccessful primary challenge to Bush last year, won rousing applause again with an attack on "multiculturalism," scoffing at those who say the world's many cultures are equal.
"Our culture is superior," Buchanan said. "Our culture is superior because our religion is Christianity, and that is the truth that makes men free."
It is such talk that moderates claim gave Republicans an intolerant image last year and drove many suburban middle-class voters away. "It cost us the election," said Elsie Hillman, a moderate Republican National Committee member from Pennsylvania.
Hillman's was a common view among Republicans after the election, and even many conservatives said their movement needed a softer image. But eight months into the Clinton administration, many Christian conservatives are more optimistic, believing they have gained strength thanks to Clinton.
Still, not all of the GOP presidential prospects were as eager as Buchanan to plunge into the party's internal debate over abortion and other social issues.
In speeches Friday, Sens. Bob Dole of Kansas and Phil Gramm of Texas focused on economics and health care.
"We don't need any litmus tests in the Republican Party," was as close as Dole came to talking about the abortion debate. "We need to learn to focus on the big picture," was Gramm's indirect reference.
Former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp, speaking Saturday night, said it is a "false choice" to pit social conservatives against economic conservatives.
But there is no debate on that point among the conservative Christians. And Kemp, in a rambling speech in which he at one point discussed the Greek and Latin sources of the word "economics," skirted any direct reference to moderates or the abortion feud.
Christian Coalition Executive Director Ralph Reed said the economic focus of Dole and Gramm showed the wisdom of diversifying the organization's issues portfolio. "Taxes and health care and government are of paramount importance to our members," he said. "We've moved beyond the days when someone has to talk about abortion when they come before us."
Yet even as he talked of "casting a wider net" to expand the coalition's reach, Reed was careful to make clear he was not advocating a retreat on abortion or other cultural fronts.
"To do anything that would be perceived as backpedaling from that position would be a disaster at the ballot box," Reed said of the party's anti-abortion stance. But he said he believed there was a way to "use different words to convey the same principle," perhaps in a way that also recognized that not all Republicans agreed on the issue.
That delicate maneuvering on the abortion issue was just one example of the challenges the coalition faces as it tries to become more involved in other issues, topics in which its core supporters are not as unified as they are over abortion and gay rights.
Reed, for example, wanted to put the Christian Coalition's grass-roots strength behind the North American Free Trade Agreement. But Buchanan's opposition to the treaty drew sustained applause - and Kemp's endorsement of NAFTA a few claps and a few boos. Said Christian Coalition leader Pat Robertson: "I don't think we are going to be beating a drum on it."
by CNB