GARY BAUER WAS TWEAKING the text of his announcement speech for the Republican presidential nomination when he first heard about the school killings in Littleton, Colorado, on April 20. The speech, drafted by former Ronald Reagan speechwriter Ben Elliott, emphasized what were to be three big issues of his campaign: taxes, China, and defense. That evening, however, his campaign manager, Charlie Jarvis, suggested a new topic — Littleton. Bauer wasn’t immediately convinced. He feared being accused of exploiting a tragedy to make a partisan point. But as he flew to his hometown of Newport, Kentucky, the next day to deliver the speech, Bauer and his aides decided to stress Littleton. And his campaign hasn’t been the same since.
Bauer was expected to run as a conventional social conservative. Now, he is making an openly religious appeal for votes, mentioning God in every speech and TV appearance and advocating a national retreat from rampant secularism. The events in Littleton — notably the death of Cassie Bernall, killed by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold when she affirmed her faith in God — are Bauer’s springboard. “We’ve created a country where it’s harder and harder to make Cassies and it’s easier and easier to produce people like Eric and Dylan,” Bauer said on Meet the Press on May 9. Twisted values, not guns or Hollywood, are the nation’s biggest problem, he insisted. Harris and Klebold gave the Hitler salute and produced violent videos, but were never reprimanded. But had a teacher “hung the Ten Commandments in her room, she would have been in the principal’s office that day.”
Bauer’s emphasis on God has caused him to revise his strategy. For now, Littleton is the focus. “But we’re not assuming it will last forever,” says chief strategist Jeffrey Bell. Even if interest in Littleton wanes, Bauer plans to stick to the religious theme. “The central idea of the founding [of America],” he says, “was that liberty was the natural condition and it didn’t flow from government and that God’s hand was in the founding.”
Bauer’s new strategy aims to match what Pat Robertson did in Iowa in 1988 while averting Robertson’s subsequent collapse. The TV evangelist mobilized religious conservatives to finish second to Bob Dole in the caucuses. But in the New Hampshire primary, he came in fifth, and his campaign soon faded. Bauer plans to rely heavily on the evangelical vote in Iowa and also in earlier caucuses in Alaska and Louisiana, then broaden the appeal of his campaign in New Hampshire and other states. This is a kind of Robertson-plus strategy, one that Robertson couldn’t employ because of his background as a TV preacher, but one that Bauer, a former policy aide to Reagan and sub-cabinet official, thinks he has a chance to pull off.
This will be tricky. By emphasizing religion now, Bauer risks alienating secular voters and those who simply think God and religion have no place in politics. “I’ve tried to figure out a way to talk about this to get the attention of the American people, many of whom are uncomfortable with religious appeals,” he told me. His current solution is to talk about Littleton. “Ninety-nine percent of the American people would say we want more Cassies and fewer Erics and Dylans. I think there’s a hunger for this kind of conversation as long as people are assured that no one is going to force them to believe anybody’s sectarian views.” Bauer, who attends a non-denominational, evangelical church in Fairfax, Virginia, never mentions Jesus Christ in his speeches.
In his announcement, Bauer hadn’t fully developed his Littleton pitch. He attacked “an America today that’s never been more secular.” And he gave this advice to the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes religious activity in public life: “Pack it up and go back to where you came from.” It wasn’t until an appearance on May 2 with seven other GOP presidential candidates in Manchester, New Hampshire, that Bauer refined his take on Littleton. Elizabeth Dole, by urging more gun control, drew most of the media attention. But Bauer’s speech had a marked effect on the crowd, and almost certainly will have a longer impact on the campaign.
Bauer’s opening line was: “Do you believe in God?” It instantly quieted the boisterous audience (Bauer was the first speaker). “That haunting question was asked of a 17-year-old American girl in Littleton, Colorado,” he continued, describing Bernall and her confrontation with the killers. Bernall “had to know what the consequences were,” Bauer said, but she “paused for a moment and looked at that killer and said, ‘Yes, I believe in God.’ That confrontation is the decision we’ve got to make in America about where we’re going.” If Americans forget the country “was built on God, nothing else will matter. We must have the courage to live for it.”
Reporters haven’t known what to make of Bauer’s stress on God. “They don’t seem to know what to ask when I say this,” says Bauer. “They look at me for a couple seconds and then ask about something else.” Queried about gun control on Meet the Press, Bauer recounted the Bernall story and noted the banishing of God from schools. “That is at the heart of the issue basically, not Hollywood and guns.” Host Tim Russert said Bauer’s point was “important.” But then he asked Bauer if he supported mandatory safety locks for all guns.
Will Bauer’s religious theme have legs? Bauer says he doesn’t know if it will prompt Americans to “think about this more seriously and, secondarily, associate me with a particular view they like.” But Marshall Wittman of the Heritage Foundation, once the Christian Coalition’s Washington lobbyist, says Bauer’s tack “will probably pay more dividends than a secular campaign.” Besides, Wittman says, what has he got to lose? A long shot anyway, Bauer doesn’t have “the luxury” of worrying about whether he’s limiting his appeal too much. As for going after the church vote, David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register calls that “a workable strategy” in Iowa, which could put him in the top tier of candidates. For Bauer, that would be a giant step.
Fred Barnes is executive editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
