Ralph Reed is poised once again to shake up the 2018 and 2020 U.S. elections through the Faith and Freedom Coalition. Reed created the web based group after returning to the political arena following a long hiatus from the Christian Coalition, which he also created under the tutilage of televangelist, Pat Robertson. Reed had been found complicit in lobbyist Jack Abramoff's influence peddling scheme by the U.S. Senate Oversight Committee in 2006, after having been paid over four million dollars to act on behalf of the lobbyist with Indian Casino Interests.
It was actually during the early years of the Christian Coalition itself that the foundation for 'the road to the majority' began to emerge as a road map for using fundamentalist and evangelical Christian values as a political tool. The organization was created in 1989 as a vehicle for people of faith to become actively involved in reshaping the political landscape through grassroots political activism. Reed used Ronald Reagan's words, "The hard work of Freedom," as its mantra.
Ralph Reed created the web-based Faith and Freedom Coalition in 2009.
Being a brilliant political strategist, Reed quickly realized the internet would be a perfect instrument for reaching out to the right wing Christian base in every state.
Kathleen Gilbert, writing for Life Site News, an online news outlet, said it best when she wrote that Ralph Reed's web-based organization, the Faith and Freedom Coalition, aimed to become a new rallying point for conservative values voters under siege from a hostile administration. Finding Republican conservatives to be more malleable, Reed turned his focus towards keeping and increasing the number of conservative republicans in office at the local, state, and federal level, as well as increasing their influence in state and federal courts.
Evangelical Christians realized that this was the best way to influence legislation that adhered to right wing Christian values. Ralph Reed recently stated, "we are driven by the belief that people of faith have a right and a responsibility to be involved in the world around them. That involvement includes community, social and political action".
The Road To Majority conference will jump start the election cycle of conservative Republicans
The annual conference will be held on June 8th through June 10th, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. During the conference, Ralph Reed will announce the fundraising goal to help bankroll the campaigns of current Republicans running for re-election and like-minded new candidates running in 2018 and 2020. Religious conservatives within the Republican party will also help celebrate the 2016 election which was the largest and most successful election cycle to date for the Faith & Freedom Coalition. It included 1.2 million door knocks, 10 million phone calls, 22 million pieces of educational mail, and 30 million voters guides to 117,000 churches.
85% of fundamentalist Christians voted for and backed the campaigns of President Donald J. Trump and down conservative ballot candidates. The religious right, along with hardliners in the Republican party, hope to turn more blue states red and further solidify their majority in those states that are already red.
Top Republicans will speak at the conference
As in 2016, right wing conservative Republicans will give speeches before the Faith and Freedom Coalition including Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, Texas Tea Party Senator Ted Cruz, Tom Price, Rick Perry, IA Congressman Steve King (who also sponsored education bill H.R.bill 610 supporting school vouchers), Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, and Secretary of the Education, Betsy DeVos.
Including President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, a total of twenty-nine republicans who currently hold public office have been invited to speak. A complete list can be found on the Faith and Freedom Coalition web page. Passing faith-based social legislation in the coming months and years at the local, state, and federal level will also be included in the conference. Another aim of the Republican National Committee, through its ties to the Faith and Freedom Coalition and the group's organized massive fundraising arm, is to levy targeted attacks against vocal Democrats like Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Chuck Schumer, with the goal of getting right wing voters to replace by hard line conservatives in 2018.
Democrats should take a page from the Christian Right's political playbook
The Christian right, under the guidance of political genius and evangelical Christian Ralph Reed, has grown into a cohesive and extremely powerful, national grassroots movement that has infiltrated every community in America. They speak with one voice and have one singular goal which is to become the guiding force in U.S. politics for generations to come. While the state and national Democratic parties splintered into separate factions in 2016, with each one having a separate agenda and differing views on how to get Democrats elected to public office, the religious right became even more solidified. Progressives, traditional Democrats, liberals, and centrists have continued to fight among themselves, which has allowed Ralph Reed and The Faith and Freedom Coalition, along with their right-wing Republican counterparts, to weaken the U.S. Constitution and begin stripping away the basic Civil rights and protections the document bestowed on all Americans. Their influence has also kept any Democratic challengers at bay, to date.
