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A RECENT survey showed that 36 percent of Catholics considered themselves conservative, 38 percent moderate, and just 18 percent liberal. Yet 51 percent believe the government should be bigger and have more services. How can this be? Everyone knows that only the liberals want bigger government, right?
Not exactly, and this is why former Gov. Mike Huckabee has the most favorable rating among voters of any vice-presidential hopeful, according to the latest Rasmussen poll.
The majority of social conservatives stuck in the Republican Party do not agree with its core pro-big-business policies that turn a blind eye to despotic Chinese dictators and evil Saudi royalty. Many are Republicans simply because their pro-life, pro-marriage views are not welcome in the "progressive" party that holds abortion and homosexual marriage as a foundation. Republican Party leaders don't really want these "populists" in their party either, at least not in any positions of authority. They want them to vote GOP every two years and then sit at the back of the bus and shut up.
Who are these people? Why don't the Democrats want them, and why do the Republican leaders hold their noses when around them?
These are conservative populists, the millions of people who voted for Mike Huckabee despite TV ads paid for by the conservative Club for Growth that flat-out lied about his record. Conservative populists are for the most part social conservatives who are not against big government necessarily, they just want their tax dollars to get bang for the buck and not be used in ways that are both wasteful and grossly offensive to their morals.
With gas at around $4 a gallon, conservative populists are willing to pay a little more a gallon in gas tax to fix our deteriorating road system. In Virginia, the Republicans have lost the governorship twice, and now the Senate is fighting against road construction. It proudly tells the voters who sit in traffic for hours at a time that they have saved them from being "taxed." Excuse me, but standing still on a road that has needed widening since 1985 while burning $4-a-gallon gas is far more expensive than a few cents extra a day to fix the road.
Conservative populists
DANGEROUS
Conservative populists are more likely to participate in conservation, particularly the hunt-ers and fishermen. They are normally the leaders in recycling in the community, unlike the liberals such as Al Gore who gorge themselves on energy while talking "green."
The reality: Conservative populists are Middle Americans. They support marriage as an institution between one man and one woman; believe that a baby with a beating heart is alive regardless of whether it is still in the womb or has been born; and believe that government should do what is morally right while spending the tax dollars to do the most good and the least harm. They believe religious freedom is indeed the first liberty, from which freedom of speech, press, and assembly flows, and should never be abridged by the politically correct forces that want to control the people's words and thoughts.
No wonder both Democratic and Republican leaders fear and hate conservative populists. These people are as dangerous as George Washington, James Monroe, and Thomas Jefferson. Worse than that, their numbers are huge, perhaps as much as one-third of the electorate. And they are hiding everywhere, within both parties.
A few months ago I had a long conversation with the president of a large labor union. He is a big supporter of Israel, a devout Christian, and is pro-life. He is a conservative populist stuck in the Democratic Party because the Republicans support hedge-fund operators who buy up companies, shut down local factories, and ship jobs to China.
If there were a viable third-party candidate that was more liberal on economic issues than Republicans and more conservative than Democrats on social issues, he--along with tens of millions of Americans--could find a more comfortable political home.
Only two questions remain: How long can the Democrats ignore conservative populists? And, how long can the Republicans get their votes while keeping them locked in the closet?
William J. Murray heads the Religious Freedom Coalition and is chairman of Government Is Not God PAC. He lives in Spotsylvania County.
