We need a national organization that spends money on federal elections to pass new workplace protections for traditional believers.
If you want to know why religious believers need new political organizations, look no further than the good news that Erick Erickson, editor of RedState.com, is wading into the fray to try to pass a religious freedom bill S.B. 129 in Georgia, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
I’ll be recording phone calls targeting Republican members of the legislature pointing out they voted for a tax increase, but haven’t voted to protect the religious liberty of their constituents. I’ve already recorded two versions targeting Blue Ridge and Ellijay referencing the calls and emails I’m getting that Speaker Ralston’s office is hanging up on Christians. But there’ll be others as well.
I’ve also done one for Beth Beskin’s district, both Bubber Epps and Allen Peake here in Middle Georgia, and Wendell Willard in Sandy Springs. I’ll be spending a good bit of today recording others, particularly focused in the Middle Georgia and Atlanta metro area, where I have a regular media presence. I know Peake and Epps both support S.B. 129, but I was asked to do one for every Republican in the State House who voted for the transportation tax increase. So I am. I don’t think they’ll send them all out, but they’ve got me recording one for all of them.
But meanwhile, big business is carrying water for the LGBT interests who want the bill squelched, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also reports:
We’ve been pointed to this comment from Mark Rinder, executive vice president and CFO of Safeguard Self Storage, posted on the Facebook page of attorney Jeff Cleghorn:
I was at dinner last night in Buckhead with some colleagues of mine at Safeguard and ran into Richard Anderson, CEO of Delta and Glen Hauenstein (SVP of Revenue Management at Delta). We chatted about the election re: infrastructure bonds and then I thanked him for his strong rejection last year of the Religious Freedom bill and asked him why the business community was so silent about it this year. He told me that he had just come from Governor Deal’s office where he made a strong argument to persuade him to have the House table the measure. We shall see.
Crony capitalism works like this—what favor can you curry from the powers that be by getting involved in a bill that has no real impact on your business?
The great lesson social conservatives need to learn from our losses in the gay marriage fight—and there are many of them—is that we aren’t a politically organized minority group yet. But we had better become one. You aren’t a politically organized unless and until you have organizations that can affect elections directly, by summoning foot soldiers for the ground game and money for the air war. We do not yet have a single social conservative group that operates in this space, except the Susan B. Anthony List on abortion. I do not know that S.B. 129 is a particularly effective bill. I know the difficulty passing it in a state like Georgia is a sign of our times. We need effective, thrifty, disciplined political organizations which will help local groups message, but which will fight primarily federally.
Maggie Gallagher is editor of ThePulse2016.com.
