SPECIAL REPORT: RELIGION’S EFFECT ON ELECTION ‘96

c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Commentaries on the political obliteration of Robert J. Dole are focusing on gender gaps, rank miscalculations, increasing abrasiveness and a truncated speaking style. They also speak of the candidate’s age and perhaps even snafus such as the unscheduled plunge off a stage in Chico, Calif. But most pundits overlook […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Commentaries on the political obliteration of Robert J. Dole are focusing on gender gaps, rank miscalculations, increasing abrasiveness and a truncated speaking style. They also speak of the candidate’s age and perhaps even snafus such as the unscheduled plunge off a stage in Chico, Calif. But most pundits overlook the truly tragic nature of Dole’s defeat. Here was a man who purposefully abandoned issues he knew were both honorable and vital to the nation’s health in order to pursue an expedient campaign strategy. This was not only a tragedy for the candidate, but for the country as well. Let’s begin by recognizing that Dole’s was an uphill struggle. Say what you will about President Clinton’s ethics, as a candidate he can charm the birds from the trees. More important, he is presiding over a nation enjoying peace and relative prosperity. He also benefits from a cynical political environment in which many voters have concluded that all politicians are corrupt, allowing his shortcomings _ perceived and otherwise _ to be ignored. All of which further underscores the tragic nature of the Dole campaign. Not only did he abandon important issues that set him apart from the president, he then attacked Clinton on his strongest point: the economy. Dole didn’t so much run a campaign as re-run Pickett’s Charge. The issues Dole shunned were listed by the candidate himself during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in San Diego, when he denounced Clinton’s 1992 battle cry,”It’s the Economy, Stupid,”as an insult to Americans. His point was clear: Clinton saw Americans as one-dimensional beings, interested only in economic issues. As long as voters have a few coins to jingle in their pockets, they wouldn’t care if Caligula himself were running the school board. Dole knew _ at least then _ that there is much else on America’s mind. Of course the economy is important, but so is the cultural decline that Dole had so forcefully targeted in his attacks on Hollywood excess. How else can one explain that while the country is doing well economically, a majority of people say the country is on the wrong track, and 73 percent say we’re in moral and spiritual decline? Similarly, visions of tax cuts are always attractive, but the so-called focus of the campaign _ the soccer moms _ are more interested in getting their kids home with something resembling an education from a school where they don’t risk getting their skulls crushed. With 3 million crimes committed in schools last year, they have good reason to be worried. They also know that their children are being raised in a cultural environment that is actively hostile to their values. There is no need to dwell on this obvious fact of the 1996 campaign: Between the two major candidates, Dole was by far in the best position to address public concerns on traditional moral issues. He responded by punting. Indeed, it quickly became obvious that the Republican presidential strategy was to sprint away from social conservatism. Abortion was the tip-off. After a brief struggle, the historic anti-abortion plank in the GOP platform remained in place _ a plank that sensibly calls for allowing the American people, through their state legislators, to decide whether the 14th Amendment’s due process rights should extend to life at all stages. There is usually some degree of controversy over this plank, yet Clinton had taken a position so extreme that made the”controversial”anti-abortion plank appear the model of moderation. By vetoing a bill outlawing what is delicately called partial birth abortion (when it is in fact a form of infanticide), the president had gone against the wishes of a great majority of Americans. With this issue, Clinton had handed Dole a very large political club. Dole, inexplicably, tossed it aside. Instead, he slighted his own party’s platform, saying that he hadn’t even read it. Watching Dole slouch toward Armageddon beneath his 15 percent tax cut battle flag was hardly an inspiring scene. Nor was his desperate fourth-quarter decision to address moral issues by attacking Clinton’s character. The president’s character is important, but by avoiding those issues until the bitter end, Dole sent a different message: Morality is only important when all else fails. The calculated nature of Dole’s attacks actually made him appear to be every bit as cynical as his target. Those of us who agree with the early Dole _ that Americans are not one- dimensional economic beings _ can only be disheartened by this presidential campaign, whose theme turned out to be that men do in fact live by bread alone. Dole dismissed the better angels of his nature to embrace a hollow and failed expediency. In the process he denied Americans the opportunity to debate the great moral issues of the day. KC END COLSON

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