The aptly named “autopsy report” aimed at improving Republican electoral performance among various voting groups is being met increasingly with fury and threats from the religious right bigwigs. The latest one to throw a (hilarious) tantrum is the deranged head of the juggernaut homophobic organization Family Research Council, Tony Perkins. At issue is the fact that the report suggests Republicans need not be all so nasty to gay people. But Perkins is not just displaying religious hate; also, a good deal of idiocy and ignorance.
In what the RNC is calling its ‘autopsy’ report from the last election, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has decided that the way for his party to win over voters is to parrot the Left’s policies. The grand strategy, which calls for throwing the party’s social conservatives overboard, demands the GOP be more ‘welcoming’ and ‘inclusive’ to people that are actively working against the conservative principles in the Republican platform.
How dare they talk about inclusiveness! Are they trying to make baby Jesus cry?
‘Already,’ the report warns, ‘there is a generational difference within the conservative movement about issues involving the treatment and the rights of gays – and for many younger voters, these issues are a gateway into whether the Party is a place they want to be.’…But history – and most statistical data – shows that young people tend to become more conservative and more religious as they grow up, get married, and start families of their own. In fact, in Frank Newport’s new book, God Is Alive and Well, the editor-in-chief of Gallup explains that most people are at their spiritually lowest point at age 23. After that, people become increasingly religious – meaning that a hasty retreat on marriage may score cheap points now, but it would actually alienate the same people later on.
Tony, Tony, Tony. I know you love Gallup, and Mr. Newport in particular, because he says thinks you want to hear. The problem is, he doesn’t have such a good track record, and people who listened to him recently thinking that Mitt Romney would be president ended up looking silly. Are you trying to be more of a clown than you already are?
As for people reaching their “spiritually low point” at age 23, it happens that Newport is as full of sh*t here as he usually is. This kind of interpretation for surveys showing lower levels of religiosity among youngest age groups is deeply flawed. The reason older people are more religious on surveys is not that people automatically become religious at they age; rather, it is that they grew up at a time the society as a whole was a lot more religious, and old habits die hard. Look at this, for example: 
See. There were 18-29 year olds in 1990, too (da?). But today they are 22.3% more likely to have no religion than they did at the time. Surveys done in other countries show a clear pattern: in post-industrial societies the youth are less religious than the elderly and the society as a whole becomes more secular with time, whereas in agrarian societies the youth are fully as religious as the elderly and no secularization overall is seen with time.
Perkins now gets serious.
‘While we’ve seen national Republican politicians move to support gay marriage in recent years…’ the Washington Post points out, ‘the party base hasn’t really moved with them all that much.’ Seventy percent of conservatives don’t just oppose same-sex ‘marriage,’ they strongly oppose it.
He sure has a point. The bad news for him, of course, is that support for equality is growing, even among conservatives.
Like others before him, Perkins has strong words of warning for his fellow Republicans.
If the RNC abandons marriage, evangelicals will either sit the elections out completely – or move to create a third party. Either option puts Republicans on the path to a permanent minority.
Oh PLEASE do that Tony, please! It will be so much fun to watch.
And he wraps up with one final bit of hilarity:
Values issues are not just the backbone of social conservatism, but the gateway to minority outreach. If the GOP wants to improve its relationship with Hispanics, Asians, and African Americans, it had better start by emphasizing the family issues they care about.
Are you ever going to wake up to 2013, Tony? Just look at the data above: the minorities are even more pro-equality than the society as a whole, and support for equality among them has grown at a breakneck rate of 33% since August 2004. It is not the first time that we hear conservatives trying to reach out to ethnic minorities by throwing social minorities under the bus, but Tony, ever heard of that thing called a CALENDAR? Use it.
Oh, and do I have to remind you again of this?
Paging Mr. Perkins!
