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Evangelicalism and American-style conservatism have always made for an uneasy marriage. There's always been this heavy social-justice component to evangelicalism, and that's sort of in tension with some of the more straightforward, pro-free market, pro-business aspects of the contemporary Republican Party. As long as the two-party landscape remains what it is, I don't know where exactly evangelicals go. You can definitely see a pretty big tension between Michael Gerson's conservatism and Dick Cheney's conservatism.

How would you like to see that tension eased?

We think that the evangelical-conservative marriage can be saved. I think it makes more sense for conservatives to be focused on the working class than it does for them to be focused on the poor. There are policies that social conservatives should be championing and things they should be thinking about that aren't just straightforward compassion. Focused less on the moment when somebody is poor and desperately in need of a handout, and more on the moment when a working class family is in danger of beginning the slide down that ladder to poverty.

Huckabee and Palin, two conservative Christians, are being talked about as serious frontrunners for 2012. Does that change how evangelicals and the Republican Party are perceived?

The media are fascinated by Palin, but they think she's kind of ridiculous. She has had the paradoxical effect on Mike Huckabee, because he's just better at doing interviews than she is. She's raising his intellectual credibility. Huckabee probably is rated higher now because Palin is perceived to be unable to do interviews.

It's an interesting moment, because we have simultaneously reached a point where you can be a real evangelical and be a serious contender for the nomination of one of the two major parties, but this is perceived in the media as a sign that the Republican Party is becoming increasingly marginal.

Are evangelicals willing to include the policy positions that you think the Republican Party needs to take on to rebrand itself?

The smartest thing that a Huckabee or a Sarah Palin or anyone else who is in that position could do would be to give a speech on what it means to be pro-family. They could maybe criticize some older evangelical leaders in an effort to get a little distance from them in the public eye and say, "Too often we've focused on a narrow set of issues." They would have a good chance of simultaneously embracing what I think are good policy ideas, but also brand themselves as different kinds of conservatives. That kind of branding is the kind evangelicals need and Republicans need if they are going to have any success in elections going forward. Any attempt to rebrand the party and broaden this agenda is going to be met with profound resistance.

Copyright © 2008 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Ross Douthat writes on his blog at The Atlantic. His most recent book, Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream, can be found at Amazon.com and other book retailers.

David Brooks wrote in The New York Times that Douthat and his coauthor, Reihan Salam, are two of the most promising conservatives.

GetReligion previously interviewed Douthat on religion and the media.

For more politics coverage, see Christianity Today's campaign 2008 section and the politics blog.

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October (Web-only) 2008, Vol. 52