Nobody ever expected the extreme right to GOP, the Evangelical Christian Conservative leaders to just “go away” but it seems that they are trying to prove that they were not as insignificant as everybody has come to believe.  Their proof?  Well despite Obama’s victory, they are touting the gay marriage bans in Florida, Arizona and California of their strength.  Still, though there is a lesson to be learned here,  according to msnbc:

Exit polls showed McCain carried white evangelicals 74 percent to 24 percent — not far off George Bush’s 79 percent to 21 percent margin over John Kerry in 2004.

Six in 10 white evangelicals ranked the economy as their most important issue — slightly less than the voting population as a whole. One difference that emerged was over terrorism: 14 percent of white evangelicals identified that as their top issue, compared with 7 percent of all other voters.

That may prove that extreme right leaders like Dobson and Perkins are still highly relevant and can deliver their “flock” however, what it also shows and the reason they were “left for dead” is that it was shown that their block’s significance is far less than they like to believe.  They have continued over the last 8 years to try and bully issues warning that they would “pull their vote” and cause a candidate to lose if they didn’t get their way.  What this election showed is that they can pull their vote (or in Obama’s case never offer it) and you can still win.

They may wish to bask in their victories with gay marriage, and try and spin it to their favor, but if they actually believe it, they are most likely fooling themselves (same msnbc article as above).

“There is a common thread among these different ethnic groups, and it’s church. It’s faith,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. “If Republicans want to reach into those ethnic groups, really the only bridge they can cross over are the social issues. But they have to be true to them.”

This is where they stray.  If because on this one issue, they think that they can tout their hard right brand of hate as a “bridge” to other voters, they are, I believe sadly mistaken.  This may have been a common issue that happened to fall in line, but it is not a common ground that is going to always fit, as Mr. Perkins thinks it will.

No, like Ann Coulter, Matt Drudge, Rush Limbaugh and others, these folks are not going away.  They will still be biting and scratching and attempting to prove their worth again.  But, they are all far less significant, then they ever believed themselves to be.

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