None of Pat Robertson's views would matter a damn to me if he didn't have the power to execute them. However,the Christian Coalition keeps gaining more and more power through the Republican party. Check out the following blurb from TIME magazine, Feb. 24 1997:
THUNDER FROM THE MIDDLE Members of Team 100, an elite group of Republicans who have given more than $100,000 to the party, received an extraordinary letter this week from John Moran, finance chairman of Bob Dole's presidential campaign and former finance chairman of the Republican National Committee. As first reported in the Washington Post, Moran charges that the R.N.C. has been hijacked by the Christian Coalition "and others who are adamantly opposed to a moderate agenda"; that these forces (led by Coalition executive director Ralph Reed) engineered the election as R.N.C. chairman of Jim Nicholson, who "will now be beholden to the far right for their support"; and that as a result, the members of Team 100 ought to be "giving consideration to throwing our financial support to a committee or organization that has a more moderate Republican political philosophy." Saying the Coalition is at a point where it is "exercising significant control" over the R.N.C., Moran suggests that the G.O.P.'s future "is in jeopardy."--TIME magazine notebook, FEBRUARY 24, 1997 VOL. 149 NO. 8
When you've got prominent Republicans such as John Moran worried that their party has been hijacked by an extremist organization, its time to be frightened. Moran is apparently worried enough to tell the party's wealthiest donors to give their money to someone else, because the Republican National Committee is under control by religious extremists.
A prime example of Christian Coalition control over the GOP was seen during the last convention. During the formulation of the platform, the Coalition managed a series of victories for intolerance, including gutting plans to include tolerance language on the subject of abortion. Additionally, one of the major reasons that Jack Kemp was chosen as Bob Dole's running mate is that the Coalition approves of him.
Sure, the Christian Coalition claims to be a non-partisan organization, which means they don't have to pay taxes. This is nothing but a huge crock, as stated by Pat Robertson himself on CNN: "You know, I'm a convention, at the Republican convention I'm a delegate from VA. So is Ralph Reed. We're both delegates elected by our state to come to this convention. And, uh, we have another 450 Christian Coalition members. Ah, so to say that we're non-partisan is a little ingenuous. I mean, obviously we're partisan. The Christian Coalition's voter guides, on the other hand, are non-partisan. The money that is spent in an election cycle is a non-partisan, uh, effort. But I think under the various laws, the FEC rules and so forth, it is perfectly all right to advocate candidates who support your positions on key issues, be they abortion, or family tax credits, or whatever. The Supreme Court has said that's part of our First Amendment freedom. So I, I, I don't deny that we have that right. But so far we have been more or less non-partisan, but I think rather clearly Republican." (8/15/96)
Unfortunately for Pat, the Federal Election Commission does not agree with him, and is currently suing the Coalition for illegally supporting the Republican party.
Ralph Reed knows it too. In a CNN interview, when George Stephanopolous made the claim that, if Dole was elected, America would be in the hands of Bob Dole, Jack Kemp, and Pat Robertson, Reed just gave that famous shit-eating grin, seen on the agenda page.
Basically, the question comes down to whether or not it makes sense for a powerful political party to be held by the balls by religious extremists. The answer is clearly no.