Sunday, December 21, 2003

The God Card

Another thing that everyone knows is that Democrats are God-hating heathen pagan atheists. Much like gay rights issues, there's literally nothing they can do overcome that image. Divorced Ronald Reagan went to church about as often as I do but that didn't stop him from being portrayed as a God-fearing devout [insert your own denomination here] Christian. Playing the God Card in the primaries is just another way of shooting ourselves in the collective foot.

Look, even Holy Joe Lieberman got some shitty press about his religion - a lot of snarky talk about his use of a Sabbath Goy, vague insinuations that X or Y was somehow incompatible with his religion and therefore he wasn't *really* orthodox, or at least not a "good" Orthodox, etc...

Stop playing defense on these issues, and stop letting the other side write the script.

Is it possible that Democrats can overcome the perception that they're anti-religion? Perhaps in the long run. But, the fact is that the people who care most about this stuff aren't going to be happy until we have Ten Commandment monuments on every street corner. The media and the Republicans have successfully equated "religious" and "the religious Right," despite the liberal traditions of many many many churches. Embracing bumper sticker religion in the short run, and pissing off persecuted religious minorities like myself by condemning secularism, is just another way to try to out-Republican the Republicans and that can't be done.

... and, yes, as 56K points out the attacks on Dean specifically are a way of pointing out that his kids have been raised as Jews, and that therefore he can't be particularly religious.

... one more thing - the moment when I was most embarrassed to actually bother supporting the Democrats was when they all gathered on the steps of the Capitol and belted out the 1954 Knights of Columbus version of the Pledge of Allegiance, screeching "UNDER GOD" at the top of their lungs like they were cheering at a hockey game.