DECLINE AND FALL OF THE REPUBLICAN EMPIRE

The decline and fall of the Republican empire started long before the invasion of Iraq and even longer before a young upstart senator, Barack Obama, threw his hat into the presidential ring. Years ago, the Republican party impaled itself on the sword of social conservatives and has been bleeding profusely ever since.

The party doomed itself when, in place of fiscal conservancy, it made pro-life its bedrock issue. Many Republican women, including Barbara Bush, have long been pro-choice, as have some male party members. Those pro-choicers made up a sizable block of the party. Many of them got pissed off and jumped ship - a ship of fools.

I know that people are going to climb all over my ass for what I am saying. So let me make myself perfectly clear - I am not in favor of abortions on demand. I do not like it when some pregnant female, especially an adult, gets an abortion simply because she did not want a baby. She should have considered that before she had unprotected sex.

I do respect those who, for religious reasons, are pro-life. And I really appreciate the strong and unwavering support evangelicals have given the State of Israel. But I do not believe it is any business of the governmnet to involve itself in the abortion issue. Conservative Christians and orthodox Jews have every right to condemn abortions. But in the end, abortion is a moral issue that should be settled within the family and not by law.

When John McCain plays to the base of the Republican party, he is playing to the evangelical Christians. That is why he selected Sarah Palin, a candidate with strong pro-life credentials. While that has energized the social conservatives, it has done nothing to attract those who left the party because of the abortion issue. And it certainly will not help McCain with pro-choice independents.

The evangelicas are highly organized and make their voices heard loud and clear. But do they constitute a majority within the Republican party? I rather doubt it. But when they vote as a block, like African-Americans, their vote could determine the outcome of an election, especially that of the Republican primary. They submarined McCain when he sought the presidency in 2000.

A week from now we will be electing a new president, and you can bet your life savings that it will be Obama. And the Democrats will probably solidify their control of Congress. The evangelical dominated Republican party's depleted ranks are not likely to be replenished by the huge influx of young new voters - not when many of those young voters believe in sexual liberation and enjoy "hooking up" for one night stands.

The presidential election will be determined by independents. If it were not for the bedrock pro-life stance of the Republican party, a sizable majority of those independents, many of them former party members, would probably vote for McCain. That would have given McCain a fairly good chance to win the presidency despite the state of the economy, the war in Iraq, the knocks on Sarah Palin and President Bush, and all the blacks voting for Obama.