A reader, Mark G, responds to God-o-Meter’s New York Daily News piece about the growing God Gap between religious conservatives and the more secular establishment of the Republican Party:

This post does not provide any solid reason to think the gap between Wall Street Republicans and evangelical/social conservative Republicans is growing. The gap has always been there; Noonan and Will have been criticizing the religious right folks for as long as I can remember.
When the team is winning, both camps are happy and keep their differences more under wraps. When it looks like losing, both camps want to pin the blame on the other.

Good point. The GOP’s God Gap has existed at least since the rise of the Religious Right in the late 1970s. But the party is having a very hard time finding national figures who bridge that gap rather than exacerbate it.
George W. Bush was such a natural at bridging the gap that he made it look easy. But when Mitt Romney tried to do it earlier this year, he wound up earning distrust from both sides of the GOP, from religious conservatives and the secular establishment.
And most of the parties other national figures fall clearly on one side of the gap or the other, unable to unify the party.
McCain falls on the establishment side. Sarah Palin on the religious side.
Rudy Giuliani falls on the establishment side. Mike Huckabee on the religious side.
Who can the Republicans run four years from now who will be able to bridge the divide?

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