Pat Robertson & Pot; Goldwater & Gays

Why Do "Social Conservatives" Wait So Long to Moderate Their Views?

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PAT_ROBERTSON_MARIJUANA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-03-08-13-11-19

Justice Dakota

03/08/2012

On March 8, 2012, Pat Robertson, the charismatic Evangelical Christian host of The 700 Club television show, and the founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, called for the legalization of marijuana.

In 2010, Robertson, the 81-year-old TV Evangelist called for an end to mandatory prison sentences for possession of marijuana. WTF!?

In a 1994 interview with the Washington Post, Barry Goldwater -- Arizona Governor, Right-Wing Christian Conservative, Republican candidate for President of the United States in 1964 (he lost to President Lyndon Johnson by a massive landslide while the GOP lost many seats in the House and Senate) -- Goldwater said (at around age 85):

"When you say "radical right" today, I think of these moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others who are trying to take the Republican party and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss politics goodbye."

In response to Christian Fundamentalist Jerry Falwell's opposition to the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court (Falwell had said: "Every good Christian should be concerned"), Goldwater stated: "Every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass."

In 1996, Goldwater is reported to have told Bob Dole, "We're the new liberals of the Republican party ..."  In that same year, Goldwater endorsed an Arizona initiative to legalize medical marijuana -- further pissing off social conservatives.

Goldwater also disagreed with the military's ban on homosexuals ("Everyone knows that gays have served honorably in the military since at least the time of Julius Caesar.")

Just prior to his death, it is reported that Goldwater told the republican establishment, "You are extremists, and you've hurt the Republican party much more than the Democrats have."

Why do "Social Conservative" pundits not learn from history? Where is it written that social conservatives have to wait until their final years to become less judgmental and more humane?

Santorum should study Goldwater -- the man after ambition did not contaminate his motives --
Oh, and props to Robertson! Sad that all these guys wait so long to become HUMANE, kind, and generous (from a political policy perspective).

Could this be Governor Mitt Romney's gift to American politics? He does not have to go through the "Hate" and "Mean" process ... ?

Could Romney be the wise, conservative Sage already? (And, why do the self-described "Real Conservatives" continue to enjoy the "hate and mean" phase of the process?)