It has been a tough year for the party of Lincoln — a party that every day continues to move further and further away from representing everyday Americans.

After viewing a scary preview on YouTube about the movie Jesus Camp, in which young, maliciously indoctrinated children appear to be worshipping a life-size cutout of George W., I was awed by some of things said on the film. Most notably, former pastor Ted Haggard, who led an evangelical church, was featured in this movie blasting homosexuality, though he recently resigned after allegedly buying a male prostitute from an online Web site and using crystal meth. Not only is this hypocritical, but it’s also disgusting. He is condemning loving same-sex couples while apparently doing his share of online shopping on Rentboy.com.

Evangelicals might have struggled to organize any last-minute, formidable efforts in this past election due to consistent problems with their candidates. For example, the racist Sen. George Allen of Virginia couldn’t even conjure enough of them to win back his spot, though he was certain to start out one of his speeches on election night with thanking God.

So will there be a repeat in 2008, with the Dems picking up the presidency and dominating the House and Senate? The answer is probably not. As Jesus Camp extraordinaire Becky Fischer said, “this means war,” and boy is she right. And that’s because Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and every other evangelical fanatic (exception Ted Haggard, who might be snorting up somewhere) will put up one of the most ferocious battles for the presidency that Americans might ever see. It isn’t that these social conservatives leaders can make sound political arguments in favor their values system, but rather because they believe Democrats are inherently evil.

But conservatives are going to struggle to support the current front-runner for the Republican nomination, Rudy Giuliani, who is barely edging out John McCain in November polls conducted by Pew Research and USA Today. Conservatives could not possibly like him, because his track record indicates huge degrees of social liberalism including supporting gay rights and the option of abortion, among others.

McCain would probably fare better. But even he has a record that would be considered unfriendly to the evangelicals. He continues to oppose a national amendment banning same-sex marriage and has been wishy-washy on abortion rights, not to mention he has aligned himself as a moderate with the Group of 14 in the Senate. And on top of all of his “liberal” attributes, he once got angry while campaigning for presidency in 2000 and called some evangelical leaders the “forces of evil.” For his sake, McCain lovers had better pray that he doesn’t have another slip of the tongue this time around.

I don’t feel the need to cover Condoleezza Rice. She just makes me mad.

But the biggest factor that will turn out evangelicals won’t be who the Republicans nominate, but rather who the Democrats do. While I like Hillary Clinton, I understand that she might turn out a huge group of angry, one-issue Republicans who want to save embryos. Her attempt to assert her moderate platform by claiming that she has always been a “praying person” was probably brushed off by evangelicals.

If the Democrats are smart enough they will avoid deeply offending the evangelicals. Barack Obama: 2008.

Christopher Taylor is a senior nursing major and point/counterpoint columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].