Answer one of the following questions:
1. How were Johnson and Nixon similar in their personal adherence (or lack of adherence) to organized religion? How did they deviate from each other in the ways they courted support from religious groups over the issues of civil rights and the Vietnam War.
2. Jimmy Carter is sometimes described as the first "born again" president. How, then, did he manage to lose the general support of other "born again" citizens to what would come to known as the "Religious Right"?
Due Thursday, November 16th
2. Jimmy Carter is sometimes described as the first "born again" president. How, then, did he manage to lose the general support of other "born again" citizens to what would come to known as the "Religious Right"?
ReplyDeleteIronically, the same Evangelical Christians that Carter spurred into political action in 1976 were the people who let to his ouster in 1980. And it seems, too, that Carter’s adherence to the true words of Jesus Christ as opposed to the far right theological propaganda was what doomed him. Carter’s strong position against segregation, and the astonishment at his views by his Georgia community, was telling of the dissonance to come between the true, biblical values that Carter followed and the attitudes of evangelical Christians towards progressive policy. While Carter’s impeccable character was able to carry him as far as the 1980 elections, it could bring him no further.
Carter’s loss against “arch-segregationist” (96) Lester Maddox in the Georgia governor’s election, too, showed just how divided the country was on the issue of segregation. Carter doubled-down on his beliefs after losing to Maddox in 1966, and his devotion paid off in the long run. Although Carter won the election for Georgia governor in 1970 after taking time to devote himself more to god, he ran as a conservative. Although during his inaugural address he stated, “the time for racial discrimination is over”, there is only so far good values and devotion to god can take you, especially when he made good on his promises.
Carter’s ability to market himself as a representative of the “New South” gave hope to a disenfranchised America following the Watergate scandal. Luckily for Carter, character was more important than ever in choosing a leader, and Carter’s was flawless regardless of political affiliation or religious beliefs. Unfortunately, the evangelical’s began to organize themselves after a bombardment of progressive decisions in the 70’s. Fueled by divisive characters such as Paul Weyrich, the right realigned itself more solidly with the south, and Southern Baptism. Southern Baptist ideals, such as the defense of the separation of church and state, were shuffled by the Republicans in order to further distance southern Evangelicals from progressive ideologies.
Overall, it was the same things that gave Carter so much success in the Georgia and 1976 elections that caused the mobilization of these previously inactive evangelicals. The Republicans took advantage of Carter’s caring, altruistic personality to demonize him. Carter, simply, was too good of a person to be able to win in the increasingly polarized Washington. His missteps and the poor situation the economy was in, as well as the surge of evangelical activism on the side of the Republicans, contributed greatly to his defeat, and the effects are still felt today.