The American Spectator

Print Email

Text Size

The Spectacle Blog

Shawn, perhaps unsurprisingly, I don't agree that Armey is massively more important than Dobson.

One thing people don't understand about the "Religious Right" is that guys like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell are not as important as James Dobson and Chuck Colson. The latter two have formed an axis of respectability for conservative Christians for decades.

Dobson takes a lot of fire now because he's been more outspoken since the late 1990's and has been determined not to let the GOP take cultural conservatives for granted. I think that's a worthwhile function. Armey certainly didn't keep them from going spend-crazy. Maybe Dobson can keep them pro-life.

Between Dobson and Armey, Dobson may actually have been the more prestigious academic. Back before he went full-time for Focus on the Family, Dobson was on the faculty of the University of Southern California med school (as a children's psychologist). Dick Armey was with the University of North Texas.