Values over victory

By Nicholas Wilbur

Republicans care more about morality than they do victory, according to a recent public opinion poll, and both God and the Democratic Party are rejoicing in the news, although for different reasons.

A McClatchy-Marist poll found that 38 percent of prospective Republican voters want a GOP nominee who shares their values, compared to 15 percent who prefer a candidate who can win.

McClatchy-Marist poll

Winning isn't everything, as they say, but in most cases people just say that as a justification for losing. The primary season is still six months away, leaving pols in D.C. scratching their heads wondering whether this is early onset defeatism or the overzealous idealism of a truly principled, pious Christian demographic.

Depending on their proximity to the Bible Belt, conservative voters either dislike or vehemently loath President Obama. In the eyes of the millions of people who watch Fox News or listen to conservative talk radio, all of America's ills are attributable to the "liberal fascism" and wealth-distributing socialism that they are told are trademarks of modern progressivism.

If that’s true, how then is it possible that those same people care less about defeating Obama than they do about having a candidate who shares their beliefs? Are they not getting the message? Were Glenn Beck's twisted chalk-board conspiracies too complex for the right-wing masses to understand the grave importance of ousting Obama from power?

For Democrats, who hope to keep the White House and maybe pick up enough seats in Congress to take back majority control of the House of Representatives, a confirmed date for the coming rapture wouldn't come close to beating this news.

Polls show a consistent dissatisfaction with the stubborn partisanship and bitter ideological battles that have become the norm in the barbed-wire arena of political discourse.

If Republicans won't settle for anything less than a saint in 2012, their less-than-enthusiastic support for the GOP nominee will be reflected in voter turnout. If their candidate fails the piety test, they might not show up at all.

The GOP needs a miracle candidate in 2012, someone who can rile the Tea Party base, rally the social conservative base, and yet still manage to persuade the independents that Change didn't happen and Hope doesn't float. They must be passionate enough to excite the far right wing in the primary race and yet sane enough not to disenfranchise moderates, offend women, and enrage middle class laborers in the general election.

It's a tall order even under the most ideal conditions. With a Mormon and an evangelical cheese head topping the polls in the nomination race, divine intervention may be the only solution.

Luckily for conservatives, they've demonstrated the depth of their morality and the strength in their principles that if anyone's prayers are answered, it will definitely be theirs first. 

(Cross-posted at Muddy Politics.)