I don't think distancing the Democrats from so-called radical secularists is the answer... as one of those "radicals", we aren't as bad the the Republicans would pretend we are. The fact is the Republicans have painted all secularists as being anti-God when that isn't the case, and Democrats have not been successful in making the case that secular is 1) not anti-religion and 2) to the benefit of all religions. The Jews don't want Christian values imposed on them, just as the Anglicans don't want the Baptist views imposed on them, or the Catholic view or whatever. Secularism is supposed to be about logical reasons that all reasonable people can debate and hope to agree on, rather than just appealing to authoritarian religious practices and seeing which religions happen to be more numerous. Democrats have failed to make the case that removing 'under God' for instance from the pledge is about RESPECT for 14% of Americans who don't believe in god. We have allowed the right to portray us as immoral when that is a patent falsehood.
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I'm not arguing against a secular state - far from it. What I'm arguing against (and let me re-emphasize) is radical secularism. I'm not talking about the secularism that wants to respect all religions - I'm all for that. I'm talking about the fringe secularism that doesn't respect any. I'm not suggesting that we take the Republican's lead and make Christianity our state religion. I'm suggesting that calling Christians stupid and ignorant is not the way to win elections.
Finally, I'm suggesting that Democratic politicians should stop being afraid to admit they're Christians (if, indeed, they are). There's a lot more in the Bible to back our progressive causes than Bush's regressive ones.
I would agree that calling Christians ignorant and stupid is no way to win elections. Too bad that calling people like me, who don't have a religion, immoral is still okay for the right wing. It's those kinds of attitudes that lead to the irreligious lashing out because other members of the left fail to defend them. I would also agree that despite the fact that it is nearly impossible for a truly irreligious person to get elected, the public has this skewed perception of the left as being dominated by them, when in fact nearly everyone is a mainstream Protestant, Catholic or Jew.
Part of the problem here is that there is a real cultural gap between liberal religiosity--which particularly in the north tends to be understated and personal--versus southern religiosity which folks tend to wear on their sleeves. This is likely a primary source of the division between red states and blue states.
Pretty much exactly what I'm saying here, now. The Democrats are generally just as (if not more, if you look at what the Republicans actually do rather than what they say) Christian as the Republicans. They should talk about it more.
Solution: Work in Congress to protect the voting rights of every American - for instance, by making Election Day a federally mandated holiday, by requiring stronger legal action to protect against the sort of workplace intimidation I just outlined, and by championing the provisional ballot.
Hear, hear. I agree it would be pretty difficult for the GOP to come out against something like this if it gets to an up-or-down-vote. (I think the federal holiday thing is especially doable by a vocal citizen campaign, and I believe there's already a bill on the subject languishing in a House or Senate committee. Will have to do more research on this.)
Yes, here's the latest version of the bill periodically introduced by Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), dead in the Judiciary Committee. (A bill of which, incidentally, Kerry is a co-sponsor.)
I wonder how one would go about getting the issue revived and not killed in committee. Step one, I guess, would be contacting Stabenow (and Kerry and the other co-sponsors) to show our support for bringing it to the floor again (it'll have to be a new bill introduced in January, since the text of S.726 is specific to 2004). Step two, badger our own representatives about it?
Getting this on MoveOn's desk sounds good. The national holiday idea seems to make the round of the blogs frequently, but never quite becomes A Thing.
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Finally, I'm suggesting that Democratic politicians should stop being afraid to admit they're Christians (if, indeed, they are). There's a lot more in the Bible to back our progressive causes than Bush's regressive ones.
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Part of the problem here is that there is a real cultural gap between liberal religiosity--which particularly in the north tends to be understated and personal--versus southern religiosity which folks tend to wear on their sleeves. This is likely a primary source of the division between red states and blue states.
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Hear, hear. I agree it would be pretty difficult for the GOP to come out against something like this if it gets to an up-or-down-vote. (I think the federal holiday thing is especially doable by a vocal citizen campaign, and I believe there's already a bill on the subject languishing in a House or Senate committee. Will have to do more research on this.)
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Getting this on MoveOn's desk sounds good. The national holiday idea seems to make the round of the blogs frequently, but never quite becomes A Thing.
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