VIRGINIA BEACH
A few days ago, Cal Thomas sat in his Northern Virginia home, waiting for his liberal writing partner Bob Beckel to show up.
Thomas, as readers of his syndicated column know, is no liberal. He regularly appears on a Fox News Channel panel. He was vice president of the Moral Majority in the early '80s.
But a few days after the election of Barack Obama, Thomas had good things to say.
"Well, look," he said, "I grew up in segregated Washington, and I am very pleased that this country, 45 years after the 'I Have a Dream' speech, 40 years after Martin Luther King's assassination, would elect a person of color to our highest office. I think this is a cleansing, wonderful thing."
Then again, Cal Thomas hasn't stopped being Cal Thomas:
"At the same time, I think we have focused too much on externals. A liberal is a liberal."
Thomas was speaking during a phone interview, which he agreed to in advance of a discussion he and Beckel will hold tonight for the season's kickoff of the Virginia Beach Forum at the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts. The discussion will be called "Common Ground," the same as their column for USA Today and a book they have co-written.
Thomas noted that the praise Obama got for breaking new ground was not extended to conservative African Americans, such as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, Lynn Swann or Condoleezza Rice.
"All these other guys have been trailblazers too," Cal Thomas said. "I just find it to be a double standard."
Thomas has much to say about how the Republicans have failed to live up to true conservative thought, and he's got the whole "Nixon Goes to China" theory behind him. He makes criticisms that, coming from him, might carry more weight than from someone more to the left.
Thomas' column the day after the election was headlined: "Religious Right R.I.P."
"Republicans had all three branches of government," he said in the interview. "They promised, 'We'll be different. We can't be like the corrupt Democrats,' and Americans said, 'OK.'
"What did they do? They became part of the wallpaper overnight. They screwed up royally."
Now, Thomas says he thinks the Republicans have to undergo a reassessment of what they stand for. They need to find a way to bring in younger voters, a whole generation that came of age after Ronald Reagan was long gone, he said.
They need to abandon efforts to legislate away aspects of the culture that they don't like, he said, and instead broaden their appeal by focusing on issues that Christians were instructed to work on in the Bible - work to help the poor, the hungry, those in prison, orphans.
Then, just when he was rolling, someone came to the door of Thomas' home.
"Got to run," Thomas said. "My buddy Bob Beckel has come over, and I want to see how much he wants to gloat before we write the column."
Lon Wagner, (757) 446-2341, lon.wagner@pilotonline.com
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Alan A
I wrote Cal Thomas after his column about the religious right and told him that, just as he suggests Christians quietly follow their Master by feeding the poor, assisting the elderly, etc., so many, many Christians are living out their faith that way already. The reason it seems that they are not already doing so is because they are so quiet about it, not making it a political issue. I find most Christians in our community to be far more outreach oriented than politically oriented. There is no need for a paradigm shift. There is only a need for people to stop assuming that Christians only talk about good works . . .
hard to believe
Hard to believe that I actually agree with some of what Cal has to say. It is indeed rare. The Republicans in general and the religious right in particular need to redefine for themselves what it means to be a Christian. They have forgotten that ending poverty, war, and other frailties of the human condition are also decidedly Christian attributes. Amen brother, well said Cal, and perhaps they can find their way to become a little bit more tolerant of others. As for his comment on the perceived lack of respect or coverage of the "break-throughs" acheived by Clarence Thomas, Lynn Swann, Michael Steele and Condi Rice ..... has he forgotten Thurgood Marshall (first black Supreme Court Justice), George L. Brown (first black Lieutenant Governor of Colorado in the 1970s), Doug Wilder (first black governor and a southern state to boot) Colin Powell (first black Secretary of State) or Madeline Albright (first female Secretary of State). And Condi Rice has received as much ink and favorable press as has any other black or female in our history. Guess his main argument is that the press didn't go ga-ga over the break throughs of Thomas, Swann, and Steele as the first Conservative blac
What do you mean, Gertz?
Do you want the religious conservatives to all die?
Haven't we heard of "the loyal opposition" in most civilized lands? If we all believed the same, would it even be safe?--wouldn't that lead to real excess if there were no one around to ever express another way of looking at things?
"Religious Right R.I.P."
Now that's somemthing to work for.
The Religious Right
After a good many years of observation, I think the bumper sticker has it absolutely correct ... the Religious Right is neither ...... of course I can say the same thing lately for "Fast Food" ...
Let Thomas be _______!
Rightist Conservatives love spokesmen who clearly villify perceived opponents, even being suspicious of any who utter the word " Liberal " without using it to verbally bludgeon those outside their leanings. As long as name-calling remains potent, political suck-ups will turn their vitriol among the brains-deficient racists to their profit on radio and in print. There is little honesty among the Republican Right but there is an abundance of ill will, low morals and vicious decadence, a kind of " Tricky Dickism " now worshipped in their religion and politics.