By Peter J. Smith
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-life and pro-family advocates may face another political bruising in 2008 if the predictions of a veteran conservative activist prove true – an almost guaranteed Clinton administration and a Congress divided in half between Republicans and Democrats.
Paul Weyrich, co-founder of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority, and chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation has accurately predicted the outcomes of presidential elections for decades with two exceptions. In 1964, Weyrich believed that a “silent majority” would prevail and elect Barry Goldwater in 1964 instead of Lyndon Johnson, a mistake he vowed never to commit again. Back in 1999, Weyrich also believed George W. Bush was too weak of a challenger to Al Gore. Gore actually won the popular vote, but Bush won the Electoral College making him President.
Writing in Townhall.com, Weyrich opined, “I believe that the Democrats, most likely with Senator Hillary R. Clinton (D-NY) as the nominee, will win. The Republicans, regardless of who they nominate, will lose because of the war in Iraq. Voters want to punish the Republicans for Iraq.”
Pro-family and pro-life advocates hold sizeable influence in a coalition of interests in the Republican Party. While conservatives may disagree as to the party’s effectiveness, it is agreed that further losses to the Democratic Party, including the capture of the Presidency, would mean the pro-abortion and homosexual lobby would see an expansion of their agenda.
Weyrich predicts also that Republicans will continue to lose seats in the Senate, which Democrats control by one vote. First, he believes incumbent Republican candidates are weak and the GOP “has few, if any,
potential challengers to Democrats who may be successful.”
The House of Representatives, on the other hand, is a sure toss-up and provides an opportunity for Republicans to recapture at least half of Congress and stall the radical agenda of a potential Clinton administration.
“If the Democrats do not fulfill the promises they made to their base and the country, the Republicans could win the 16 seats needed for a majority,” Weyrich said. If the Iraq War factors into public dissatisfaction with Congress as Weyrich says it does, then polls showing Congress at its lowest ebb may bear his predictions out. A recent UPI-Zogby Poll shows 75% of the American people rate Nancy Pelosi’s Congress’s handling of Iraq as “poor.”
Other conservatives have proposed that Republican defeat may owe itself a wide perception by its base that the party had ceased to be governed by conservative principles and seemed to serve its own interests.