Freedom, and Kugel, Renaissance is a con artist’s word, all sizzle and no steak. Renascence is the clean English version of the same word, growing from the identical roots, also meaning rebirth and reemergence. But try calling your organization the Patriotic Renascence Project and see where it gets you. So touching down inWashingtonDC for a weekend conference at the Renaissance Hotel, I’m preprogrammed to expect fluff.
Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition is hosting but the big names are the draw: Romney Santorum Gingrich and so many more of like mind. Meet all your Republican rock stars even if they can only give you nine seconds apiece. Buy their books when they sit down to sign them and now you’re up to 16 seconds. Not long enough to get their meatloaf recipe but enough to guarantee an authentic name-drop for life. A fair enough trade I figure but still a long way from real substance.
The coalition itself is a new encounter for most of the guests. Politically savvy folks of the sort this event might attract have been following Ralph Reed’s career since he was a big mover and shaker in the Reagan campaign. He wears the 32 intervening years lightly but you don’t hear his name today as much as when he led the Christian Coalition.
Orthodox Jews loved getting those voter guides from the coalition back in the 1990s because they taught the candidates’ real positions and voting records in a way the media couldn’t or wouldn’t. But is Ralph still relevant? That’s a question we are hoping to answer this weekend. Our early clue is from his ability to draw the big names to his podium but we are keeping eyes and ears open.
Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition hosts this event annually attracting Republican political supporters and others committed to traditional values from across the country. This year’s convention has the added urgency of an election year and considered our Orthodox Jewish group important enough to make us Shabbos accommodations.
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