(Disclaimer: I didn’t like Jerry Falwell, and know before you read further that this is not a glowing, pro-Falwell post.)
The Rev. Jerry Falwell died at his office this morning. He was 73. God be with his family and ministry.
To me, the question of whether Falwell was a net positive in society is hazy indeed.
There’s little doubt that he helped elect Ronald Reagan in 1980, and I believe Reagan’s presidency continues to yield substantial economic and foreign policy benefits to this day. But was the victory pyrrhic? To do so, Falwell broadened the social hardline right wing of the Republican Party dramatically. The continuing deference to such in strategy, nominations, and policy was one of the primary factors that finally drove me from the GOP entirely last year. The Republicans need a bigger tent, and I think they ought to craft it by taking fabric away from the Rockefeller side of the party and extending it toward the socially liberal.
At times I found Falwell a talented–even brilliant–rhetorician. But it seemed to me that for every productive thing he said (about personal responsibility or the sanctity of marriage, for example), out the other side of his mouth he railed about Tinky Winky and blamed gay people for 9/11. Moreover, I questioned some of the things on which he chose to spend substantial time and money. (I thought the Hustler parody over which he famously and sustainedly sued was harmless and hilarious.)
All around, I considered Jerry Falwell no more reasonable a representative of Christianity than Louis Farrakhan is of Islam. Both are/were sensible at times, but had/have too much lunacy too close to the cores of their beings. Falwell is exactly the sort of person with whom I do not want to be equated when I identify myself as a Christian.
I believe it would be better if a similar figure did not rise to take his place.
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Which is why Rudy is more appealing than Newt.
I can’t believe Newt expects to be taken seriously.
Newt is a closet liberal I tell you:
“his big political act at Tulane University, where he was at graduate school, to have been leading a week-long student protest demanding that some obscene photographs (and I do mean obscene) be included in an issue of the campus newspaper. He did it just on the principle of “free speech,” a friend told the authors–and probably didn’t even look at the pictures.”
I believe he wore a dress, or went nude, while prancing around an “obscene” statue, as well. Not substantiated, mind you but that was the ole college lore.
In Newt’s defense, he is calling for some productive things right now, most notably the elimination of the massaged-and-handled-to-the-nth-degree style of candidacy for national office. After the parties have their nominees, he wants things like weekly 90-minute free-form debates until the election. Good luck with that.
I have no doubt that he’s a highly intelligent person. I’m impressed with how consistently well-spoken and informed he is. But from a purely political perspective, his sell-by date was roughly 12 years ago, and plus nobody wants an arrogant prick for a president (and even his most rabid fans will usually acknowledge that he’s that). And from the issues side, I find some of his social views appalling.
Thank you, Newt. Drive through.