Even as Michael Steele appears to be increasingly the verge of expulsion from his postion as RNC chairman by the Kool-Aid drinker element that now controls the Republican Party - in large part because of Steele's moderate statements on abortion and gay rights - there are a few signs that some within the GOP realize that staying the course as a de facto religious party does not bode well for the party's long term future. A case in point is Utah's GOP governor, Jon Huntsman Jr., who despite his Mormon faith appears to have seen the light and be endeavoring to veer the GOP ship away from striking yet another ice berg by moving towards a more moderate social agenda. *
Whether or not Huntsman will be successful remains in doubt because so many moderates have left the GOP over the last 5 to 10 years that the party apparatus is now fully controlled in most states by the religious fanatic set and off shoots of Christianist organizations affiliated with James Dobson and others who seek to subvert the U.S. Constitution in favor of a theocracy. Nonetheless, the fact that Huntsman is attempting to forge a more moderate path will be interesting to watch. I suspect that in time nothing less than a full blown civil war within the party will develop if Huntsman and others like him seek to roll back the party's blind allegiance to the fascist like social agenda of the Christianists. Until the political power of the Christianists is broken, they will continue to be a clear and present danger to true freedom in the USA and the Constitution. Here are some highlights from the New York Times that look at Huntsman:
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SALT LAKE CITY — Among Utah Republicans, who hold every statewide elected office and more than two-thirds of the State Legislature, Hamlet-like quests for purpose and direction are hardly the norm. But the norms are dead for Republicans here, something that was in plain view this week as lawmakers overhauled the state’s formerly untouchable liquor law at the urging of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.
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[B]ound up in it was a profound, ongoing dialog, led by Mr. Huntsman, about what the Republican Party should be about and who should lead it. Similar discussions are flickering in other parts of the country, especially in Republican-controlled state capitals, as party members sort through their losses from November, . . .
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The soul-searching has also meant a star search for national party leaders. Some Republicans say that conservative politicians like Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, the party’s vice-presidential nominee in November, will show the way forward, while others say the electoral map — and the formula for future Republican victories — was rewritten by President Obama’s election, and that a kind of casting call is now under way for new voices. Mr. Huntsman is firmly in the camp that says Republicans must turn the page.
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It’s like the world began in November,” Mr. Huntsman, 48, a moderate second-term Republican with billionaire roots, intense personal popularity and obvious national ambitions, said in an interview in his office here. “The old ethos world view — all that’s been decimated.” . . . In addition to leading the fight to change the liquor law, he has embraced President Obama’s stimulus plan, restated his support for a cap-and-trade system of carbon emissions and announced support for legislation that would provide civil unions for gay couples.
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Mr. Huntsman’s message to his party has been unwavering: that practicality and real-world action, driven by changed circumstance, should be the measure of where the next generation of Republican leaders comes from. The new Republican direction is not going to come out of Congress, he said, or “empty rhetoric,” but from a handful of Republican governors who must compete in a “meritocracy of ideas” that voters will sort out for themselves.
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But there are hints that Mr. Huntsman’s message of moderation, especially given his popularity in the state, is resonating beyond the Legislature and drawing support among the broader population. In February, for example, when the governor announced that he would support civil unions for gay couples, many politicians here braced for a backlash.
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But the backlash never developed. Indeed, after his announcement, a poll by Deseret News/KSL-TV found that two-thirds of respondents said their opinion of the governor had not changed or had become more positive because of his position on civil unions. Over all, the governor’s approval rating had barely budged, with 80 percent of residents saying they thought he was doing a good job.
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“I do not think the base of the Republican Party of Utah has traveled with the governor — at least not yet,” said State Representative David Clark, a Republican from Santa Clara and the speaker of the House. “He’s clearly on a new frontier.”
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