k wrote:
I want some pro-lifers who share the aforementioned mindset to square that opinion with the universal Republican tenet of personal responsibility and a federal government that provides little to no entitlement programs.

Sure, but this is why you mostly can't be a real partisan while thinking. There are plenty of fundamental contradictions on the left too (we support civil liberties but hold hearings on video game violence and offensive lyrics in rock music).

The issue is that the Republicans are a big tent with multiple conflicting interests. They've rounded up the Christian vote by being anti-abortion and anti-gay. However, they're also anti-tax and anti-welfare and anti-entitlement. Those positions are often inconsistent.

Some DO look at this from a perspective of abortion is murder so you can't do that and no we're not going to pay for medical care, life is tough, deal with it. We can force you to pay to keep Terri Shivo on life support but we will not pay for it ourselves. Not our problem. We're here to keep you from doing things that we think are immoral, and thats it. You are otherwise on your own.

However, I don't really think this perspective is widely held outside of the "I think what AM radio tells me to" crowd. Most of the anti-tax/anti-welfare/anti-entitlement people don't really care about abortion or gay rights or whatever. They just don't care either way. Its not important enough to them to let it impact their vote. They care about economic liberty, and whatever they have to have to get it, thats OK with them.

On the other hand, most of the Christian right is not really as callous as their present issue portfolio and recent leaders like Falwell would have you beleive. There are a large number of evangelicals who see the obsenity/abortion/gay morality push as insignificant in comparison to other issues such as peace and welfare for the poor which are clearly Christian values and clearly not served by the Republicans. This is actually causing some significant strategic problems for the Republicans as some Evangelicals are shifting left. While they won't get the hard bible thumping from the left and mostly have to give up on fighting sodomy, they get some of their social welfare stuff, and they get people who are more than willing to censor the media and are also willing to work on abortion reduction, which some of them view as strategically smart if less absolutist. They also get to be a bit more pacifist, which suits them better.

If there is a sudden "reformation" in the ranks of conservative christians you may see a dramatic do-see-do occur on the order of magnitude of the dixiecrat shift from the 30's, in which Rebublicans become more Libertarian and take on some of the social freedom elements of the left while Democrats become more socialist and take on the values conservative elements of the right. The real question is, who would end up winning elections in that scenario?

RE: Republican Presidential Candiates on Torture