Sr. GOP strategist says religion will sink Republican Party

Winds of change blowing in the Republican camp.

Steve Schmidt, John McCain's campaign manager for the run at the presidency, made these remarks at the Log Cabin Republican's national convention a couple of days ago.

"If you put public policy issues to a religious test, you risk becoming a religious party," Schmidt said. "And in a free country, a political party cannot be viable in the long term if it is seen as a sectarian party."

He builds a case for a more open Republican Party, beginning with acceptance of gay marriage.

"If you reject [gay marriage] on religious grounds, I respect that," he said. "I respect anyone's religious views. However, religious views should not inform the public policy positions of a political party because... when it is a religious party, many people who would otherwise be members of that party are excluded from it because of a religious belief system that may be different. And the Republican Party ought not to be that. It ought to be a coalition of people under a big tent."

Cool. There's a breath of fresh air.

Don't know what Schmidt's influence will be but clearly he is involved in the conversation as far as mapping out the evolution of GOP policy.

Canada's own religious right, fringe as it is, might also do well to listen up. Despite the fact that they have been "in power," albeit in a minority position, for a few years, our religious right only achieved this because of a perfect storm of Liberal and Progressive Conservative misfortune. Liberal infighting, corruption under Mulroney and Chretien, uninspiring Liberal leadership to replace Chretien, and overflow from the whole massive right-wing brainwashing *campaign going on in the U.S. meant that our rural-Alberta-based "Reform" Party of 19th century ideas was in the right place at the right time.

Now, however, they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don't think there is anything they can really do. Canada is becoming more diverse. There are a few political wrinkles that complicate matters for any party wishing to hold power but I don't really see that a party whose mojo is in the religious right has anywhere to go but down at this point in history.

And, time will tell what happens, but I think they have missed their chance.

* who laughably label legitimate news organizations "extreme left" and completely ignore the fact that there is virtually no representation of leftist ideas at all in the U.S. (or Canadian for that matter) media