Why Democrats Soliciting Religious Voters is Silly, Stupid and Suicidal

Two new books on religion and politics, both reviewed in the Washington Monthly, are promoting policies that - if not aborted immediately - will be the death of the Democratic Party.

E.J. Dionne, in Souled Out, says the era of the "religious right" is over, leaving the playing field of faith open to Democrats, and evangelical apologist Amy Sullivan, in The Party Faithful, sings Hallelujah to the Democrats' recent discovery of religion as a political tool.

Let's do a dilation and curettage on this sucker right now before it reaches viability.

I use abortion imagery deliberately, because both Dionne (Catholic) and Sullivan (Protestant Evangelical) single out abortion as the issue on which Democrats have got to get religion if they want to win over voters of faith.

Sullivan laments the fierce opposition of traditional Democratic party fund-raisers to supporting candidates who are pro-life, and criticizes those who resist both the policies and the moral exhortation needed to lower abortion rates and to persuade religious voters that Democrats understand their qualms about current abortion practice.

Well. I haven't encountered a sentence that full of euphemisms and lies covering up nasty truths since the last time I read Leviticus.

There is no such thing as "pro-life." People who say they are "pro-life" are many things - anti-abortion, anti-choice, pro-incest, pro-child-abuse, pro-marital rape, pro-wife beating, pro-abandoned-children, etc. - but the one thing they are not is "pro-life."

"Moral exhortation." Would that be the screams of "Whore!" "Jezebel!" "Murderer!" aimed at any woman who enters a Planned Parenthood Clinic? Or maybe she means the abstinence-only classes that have created an epidemic of sexually-transmitted disease among teen girls.

"Qualms about current abortion practice." I seriously doubt she means qualms about the fact that American women are denied complete medical care in 97 percent of U.S. counties. Or the fact that 17-year-old women cannot save themselves from pregnancy without the express permission of the abusive stepfathers who are raping them. Roe, schmoe.

By the way, ever check to see how easy it is to buy condoms at your local grocery store? Around here, they're behind a locked counter. At my advanced age and orneryness, I have no trouble marching right up to the pharmacist and demanding a dozen boxes, size extra-large, in a voice the whole store can hear, but I hardly expect that level of self-confidence from a 15-year-old. Makes me wanna buy a few gross and hand them out at the junior-high.

Before all you Xians started whining, let me introduce myself: I was religious before religious was cool. Many years ago, I answered the altar call, confessed Jesus Christ as my savior and was immersed baptized.

Yes, I am a recovered born-again. I've seen the Xian angle from both sides, and believe me, it's hard to tell which is uglier.

But this much should be obvious to anyone who's even glanced at political news lately:

Kow-towing to the Xian freakazoids put the repugs into power, but it's also destroying their party for the next several generations.

Copying that playbook may get dems into power for a decade or two, but it'll be their downfall, and sooner rather than later. Here's why:

Repugs and religioids are natural allies for one reason and one reason only: they are both innately right-wing authoritarian. All religions, especially all monotheisms, are innately right-wing authoritarian (RWA).

Right-wing Authoritarianism is by definition: un-democratic, un-constitutional and un-American.

Right-wing Authoritarianism is anathema to the principles of the U.S. Constitution, the United States of America and the Democratic Party.

The Founders understood this. They knew that all religions - all religions - tend toward dictatorship and away from liberty.

Free, democratic government was possible only where religion was confined to the private sphere, never permitted the slightest influence on public life.

I imagine Jamie Madison taking one look at John Yoo's memo justifying torture and searching immediately for its religious source.

Twisting our Democratic and Liberal Principles to attract the authoritarians of "faith" is an act of spiritual and political suicide.

So what, you say? All that matters is corralling enough votes to win, and then we can ignore the religioids until the next election, just like the repugs do?

You don't have to implement their medieval policies to be corrupted by them, but for the sake of argument let's look at just the practical side.

"People of faith" who are receptive to the Democratic argument that Jesus Was a Liberal and Real Christians Care About Poor People and the Environment are already voting Democratic.

The ones who aren't are never going to vote Democratic, even if Jesus himself told them to. Never, never, NEVER.

To put it another way, if you profess New Testament Christian values but don't vote Democratic, there's nothing any Democrat can say to persuade you to do so. Your hypocrisy is terminal.

Soliciting the religious vote gains Democrats nothing and will end up costing us the world.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.

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One More Reason To Be Very Afraid Of A McCain Presidency: John Hagee

John McCain used to be admired by some people to the left of him politically for his seeming recognition of how dangerous the Religious Right is. But now that the presidency is within McCain's reach, he is shamelessly sucking up to Kook Right televangelist John Hagee of San Antonio, Texas, the man who is helping with the "awakening" of the "Christian Zionist movement."

Journalism legend and fellow Texan Bill Moyers, on this video, takes a look at the extremist element McCain is now pandering to.



If McCain is elected, the world can kiss any real Mideast peace process goodbye for yet another four years.

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At the end of today

Democratic Michigan primary results: CNN with 97% of the precincts reporting -- Clinton 55%, Uncommitted 40%, Kucinich 4%, Dodd 1%, Gravel 0%. Gender breakout of Dem voters -- 57% female, 43% male. GOP results at the CNN link. Liveblogging the Democratic debate, see Kevin Drum. Video clips and commentary at Taylor Marsh.

Missed last night: Ed Kilgore recommended a blog -- 2008 Democratic Convention Watch -- to track superdelegates. So far, how they line up.

Steve Benen summed up the hatred of McCain by conservative bloggers and Repub activists. McCain said, “I believe my party has gone astray…. I think the Democratic Party is a fine party, and I have no problems with it, in their views and their philosophy.” Hmm, how many Dem voters foolish enough to vote for K Street McCain? Too many!

Religious Right alert! Pulitzer prize-winning Chris Hodges warns about H. Res. 888, which "seeks to rewrite American history, turning the founding fathers into Christian fundamentalists." The full text of the bill contains 7 references to "Christian" or "Christianity," 22 to the "Bible," and 4 Biblical verses. Ahem! As Blue Girl reminded, "Lest you all forget, the war isn't on Christmas... ...The war is on Science..."

Back in the Senate, former presidential candidate and a real Democrat Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) returns to "play a key role in [Democratic] plans to make the economy a dominant issue this year." Via Roll Call.

Joint Chiefs chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, said he'd like to see Gitmo shut down "because he believes negative publicity worldwide about treatment of terrorist suspects has been 'pretty damaging' to the image of the United States." Ya think?! (h/t Nicole)

Lawmakers are mad as hell over the DOJ's "[mis]handling of rape and sexual assault cases involving American women in Iraq." Dropping the ball there, AG Mukasey? Oh, yeah.

On the media front, Editor&Publisher editor Greg Mitchell covered Bill Kristol vs. the NYTimes op-ed page. Of course, Kristol is wrong. Again and again... about as often as Andrew Sullivan suffers from Clinton Derangement Syndrome.

Can't explain why I chuckled at this headline: FDA Says Clones Are Safe For Food. Wheeeee-oooo!

[That's all...no more after the jump.]

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Religious Right hypocrisy watch: Robertson endorses Rudy

Pat Robertson’s endorsement of Rudy Giuliani says two things, basically.
1. The Religious Right is ultimately about power, not political issues.

2. James Dobson’s threat of a third-party candidacy is thin soup; Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s endorsement of Rudy a couple of weeks back pretty much put paid on that notion; this is, in essence, the final nail. (It’s worth noting that Sam Brownback today endorsed McCain while specifically saying the GOP wouldn’t select a pro-choice candidate. Say it all you want, Sam, it doesn’t make it true.)

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When Christianists Invade the Home

This has got to be in the category of truth that is stranger than fiction but here it is:

An Edgewater city councilwoman and her husband face criminal charges after their daughter accused them of battering her during an effort to exorcise "the demons out of her."

The story is just too bizarre. Apparently, this is a common practice in their home:

..."it is common for the family to gather together to pray in times of tension and also to anoint the children with olive oil to cleanse their spirits."

Count me among those who think "anointing children" is creepy. Think about it.

Rogers went on to say on the night of June 27 the family gathered in the kitchen to pray after Danielle and her twin sister Christina got into an argument. When her husband began to "put a little dab of oil on Danielle’s forehead" she "went crazy and began flailing about "causing the oil to spill. "

In her statement, Danielle Rogers disputed that account saying her 47-year-old father poured oil "all over her’’ while her mother and sister held her.

The wife and sister physically restrained her while the father anointed her! That goes beyond creepy - actually, the police think it's criminal.

I know this is not "national" news. It's not a big issue like Iraq. But, make no mistake. It reeks of the same religious extremism that has put our troops in harms way.

I would say "Only in Florida" but, unfortunately, I know it's not just here.

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National right-to-life figure may want to thank his political opponent

Breaking news out of my home state of Kansas is making me wonder if Phill Kline -- a figure much beloved by the national anti-abortion movement -- may just have had his rear saved by a most unlikely source.

That source is Paul Morrison, the man who decimated Kline in the race for Kansas attorney general in November.

Just before Kline left office in December, the Republican filed 30 misdemeanor counts against Dr. George Tiller, a Wichita abortion provider who is much hated by the far right. Tiller is one of the few doctors in the country who does late-term abortions.

At noon, Morrison announced that he has tossed all 30 of Kline's charges, but is filing 19 other counts against Tiller. All of the charges -- both Kline's and Morrison's -- are misdemeanors.

Morrison and his office claim that Kline botched the charges he filed against Tiller. They claim that Kline and his staff did both an unethical and sloppy job.

If Morrison and company are correct, then it's likely that Kline's attempt to prosecute Tiller would have failed. If Kline's purpose is to attack, wound and otherwise keep Tiller from working, then filing a poorly prepared case wouldn't have done that.

It is too early to tell whether Kline, Morrison or neither of them are right or have done a good job. It will, however, be interesting to see the results of Morrison's case against Tiller.

Why is Kline important nationally? Simply put, his national constituency in the anti-abortion movement means that he could one day make the leap from Kansas politics to taking a larger role on the national stage. Of course, if Morrison is right that Kline seriously botched the Tiller case, then that move might just have become much more difficult to make.

More details of Morrison's charges against Tiller are at Kansas Voice.

[cross posted from In This Moment.]

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A step-by-step guide to figuring out if the religious right is turning toothless

Hope you don't mind, but I'm going to take a few of your minutes to talk about Kansas. While the events on the prairie don't have the immediate national impact of the wildness in D.C., Kansas has turned into a kind of early warning system.

In fact, we have become an early warning of the possible fate, strength or weakness of the religious right. If the far right is slipping in the Sunflower State, then it may well be loosing its hold on the rest of the nation.

That is exactly what a recent article in Alternet argued. Former Kansan and writer Martha Burk claimed:

"The progressive backlash in my old home state is complete. The right wing not only has lost control of Kansas, they've been virtually thrown out of the state..."

Here's where the whole thing gets dicey. I wish this were true. I really, really, really do, but Burk's declaration is a tad premature.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that Burk's vision may well come true. It may even happen within the next few years. It just hasn't happened yet.

To claim that this has already occurred is to naively misrepresent the situation. Ignoring reality is a lousy way to win elections.

First as a newspaper reporter and now as a political activist and blogger, I've been watching politics in the Sunflower State for more than 20 years. Here's how I read the tea leaves.

In the Alternet piece -- which first appeared in Ms. -- Burk takes note of all the Kansas political news that's been zipping around the media since November.

Yup, our governor is Democrat Kathleen Sebelius, and she is really popular. Her lieutenant governor running mate is the former chairman of the state GOP, and he did switch parties to run with her. Right winger Phill Kline got soundly booted out as Attorney General and another moderate former Republican, Paul Morrison, won easily. Democrat Nancy Boyda scored an upset victory over longtime Congressional incumbent Jim Ryun. A couple of moderate Republicans switched parties in the Legislature and won seats.

Perhaps most important, Operation Rescue's "Wichita '07 -- A Cry For Justice" event was an utter bust. Instead of the thousands who were supposed to march on the Wichita clinic of Dr. George Tiller, only a handful of people came.

But Burk left a lot out of her story, and the missing facts are telling.

The biggest sign that the religious right still has a firm hold in Kansas is the makeup of the Legislature. The Kansas House is still ultra-conservative. In January, House members elected social conservative Melvin Neufeld as speaker.

In the state Senate, a woeful 10, yes I said "ten," of the 40 senators are Democrats. In the House, only 47 of 125 representatives are Democrats. Not all of the Democrats are progressive, or even moderate.

Liberal legislation barely gets a hearing in the Statehouse, while almost anything that limits state services or helps the religious right goes to the front of the line.

It's true that the darling of the religious right, former AG Kline, was soundly defeated in November, but a month later he landed on his feet. The Republican Committee of Johnson County -- the state's most prosperous county -- elected Kline to fill the last two years of the recently vacated district attorney's office.

This resurrected Kline's political career, which up to that moment seemed dead on arrival. Given that Kline may well have national ambitions, it's important to watch what he does.

How will we know if the religious right is finally on its way out in this reddest of red states? Look for these signs.

1. Watch the primary battle between ultra-conservative Jim Ryun and moderate Lynn Jenkins. The two are fighting for the Republican nod to run against Boyda.

The primary is 14 months away and the 2008 general election still 17 months off, but Ryun and Jenkins are already going after each other with a vengeance. The most recent ignition point is a Club For Growth ad attacking Jenkins. The tussle has already made the local newspaper and the left-wing blogosphere.

What to Watch
If Ryun wins in 2008, then forget about claiming that the religious right has lost power in Kansas. If Jenkins or Boyda win in '08, then there very well may be hope.

2. Keep an eye on the struggle over the Johnson County District Attorney's office.

Kline already has one Republican and one Democratic challenger. To make matters more interesting, the county Republican Party may already be taking sides -- against Kline.

What to Watch
If Kline runs and wins after all the fury his insider election created, then moderates and liberals will have proven themselves to be toothless against the right.

3. Scope out the religious right's effort to retake the state Board of Education in '08.

Moderates won control of the state board in November, but enough seats are up for grabs in the next election that the majority could flip once again.

What to Watch
If all the furor over the right's anti-evolution stand doesn't elect a moderate majority, then the religious right may have years of renewed health.

4. Keep sight of the legislative districts and the leadership races.

This is the down and dirty local level of politics in Kansas. The candidates go neighbor to neighbor, particularly in House districts.

What to Watch
If moderates and liberals can't take control of legislative districts, particularly in the House, then the age of a more moderate Kansas may be another decade or so in coming. The winners need not be Democrats to bring a bit of sanity to the Statehouse. However, they do have to turn away from what folks out here politely call the "social conservative" wing of the GOP. If that happens, and a moderate House Speaker is elected, then folks, we really will have a new ballgame.

An earlier version of this post can be found at In This Moment.

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Jerry Falwell is dead, & this lesbian is sad

Wow. I just saw the news on the Washington Post. One of the founders of the modern religious right, Jerry Falwell, has died at age 73.

If you want the angry reaction to Falwell, look here at Americablog or see this post from my colleague here.

Everything John Aravosis says in that post is true. Falwell caused a lot of pain and hurt many people. His rhetoric may well have fueled laws that helped break families apart, take children from loving parents or give gay bashers an excuse to assault anyone they thought was queer.

I'm not going to talk right now about his impact on choice, the rights of women and other issues. I'm not going to talk about the political work he did through the Moral Majority and all those hurt by it, or the impact of Liberty University, or go into detail on how he seemed to demonize everyone who didn't agree with him.

All of that is true, but I'm not dancing today. I'm not shouting for joy because a human being is dead, and truthfully, I don't think that's what Aravosis is doing. He's angry and fearful, and he and the poster here, and all Americans have a right to be angry and scared.

At this moment, though, I don't seem to be able to work up any indignation. I'm a lesbian. Falwell hurt my people, hurt me, in a thousand ways, yet in this moment all I feel is sadness.

I'm sure Falwell has a family. I'm sure he has loved ones and children and friends who will miss him enormously. My sadness has a bit to do with mourning the death of anyone, but even that's not all of what I feel.

My sadness is over the loss of a chance. Falwell, apparently, was never able to come close to a loving God, the God of inclusion, the God of welcome. If he had, he wouldn't have been able to say or do what he did. He must have carried a lot of pain to not be able to see that all-inclusive God of love. For that lost chance, for Falwell's lost chance, I mourn.

May his family, friends and loved ones find peace and support in dealing with their loss.

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