Posted on 08/30/2006 8:56:33 PM PDT by Rawlings
When Democratic Party leaders "found God in the 2004 exit polls," as Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. likes to say, no one expected instant results. Many of the party's early efforts to attract religious voters, after all, were scattershot and not a little awkward. No one knew quite what the "faith staffer"—a new breed of legislative aide—was supposed to do, and random-seeming insertions of Bible verses into floor speeches came off as Tourette's syndrome for Democrats. In the longer run, though, the new focus on forming relationships with religious communities and voters has been the right move for a party that had essentially limited its religious outreach to black churches. Democratic campaign trainings now smartly include tips for communicating with Catholic voters. Candidates are starting to appear on religious radio outlets. And Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has even stopped saying things to intentionally antagonize evangelicals.
Which is why it is startling that in the two years since this Democratic revival began, the party's faith-friendly image has dimmed rather than improved. The Pew Research Center's annual poll on religion and politics, released last week, shows that while 85 percent of voters say religion is important to them, only 26 percent of Americans think the Democratic Party is "friendly" to religion. That's down from 40 percent in the summer of 2004 and 42 percent the year before that—in other words, a 16-point plunge over three years. The decline is especially troubling because it cuts across the political and religious spectra, encompassing liberals and conservatives, white and black evangelicals, mainline Protestants, Catholics, and Jews
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Ahhhh...the poor Dems. They think they can fool all of the people all of the time with packaging and spin.
In the meantime, substance is our secret weapon!
Religous voters aren't supid. They know who is ultimately behind taking down of crosses and 10 commandments all over the country. They know who is behind telling graduation speakers they can't say "god" in a speech. They know who is behind stripping "god" from the pledge and every other reference. Democrats think they can hide behind ACLU and not think that a church going voter won't realize that it's the Democrat party who is taking religion away from this country?
Oh, I see: abortion and homosexual "rights" are "caring for the most vulnerable" and "protecting God's creation." Right! They can't even fool themselves anymore.
I remember watching Bush elder and Clinton at one of the tsunami talks. (Please give us money)
The interviewer asked them a question about religion which Bush senior answered in a heartfelt traditional manner - exactly what a Christian would say.
Clinton answered second, and it was so obvious he was just parroting Bush. The words didn't quite make sense and a Christian wouldn't say it that way. I guess a person who didn't go to church regularly wouldn't pick it up, but right away I could tell Clinton was "pretending" to answer like a Christian.
Real Christians can tell the real deal.
I find it hard to believe that these people[DEMORATS] can be this STUPID.Their arrogance is mind blowing.Religious demorats? Huh?
As FR's token atheist, I confess I prefer the company of Christians, but I end up around a lot of libs/atheists due to work and location. The amount of pure loathing, the personal hatred, for Christianity is, frankly, more than most Christians may even believe. I challenge these atheists on their own turf, and it is soooooo easy to get a rise out of them--I merely point out how many Christians I've worked with then I was working with the homeless, for example, and I step back and watch their heads explode. :)
The Dems are undone by their inability to come to grips with their hatred for Christianity (which I believe is wrapped up in their teenage rebellion against Mommy and Daddy, a rebellion which in the case of libs never ends--i.e. they never grow up) and the truly scary fact NONE of them wants to admit--they hate George Bush and America more than they hate UBL, Saddam and Islamofascism (which they don't see as a threat).
The reason the Dems can't "act" like they're pro-Christian is because being anti-Christian--or anti-conservative Christian--is inseparablr from their political DNA. If they were more religious, they wouldn't be Democrats. And you simply can't fake a love for a religion you aren't (as I am) indifferent to but actively hate, due to your belief it is repressive, anti-woman, etc.
The Dems are in the uncomfortable position of having to hide what they really are in order to get votes--they can't SAY they hate Christianity, think the WOT is a joke, Islamofaccism a Rove invention, and abortion the closest thing to a sacrament we will find on Earth.
No wonder they have such empathy for the gays--the Libs are all in the closet.
You're an honorable guy to say that! You sound a whole lot more like a Dobson Disciple there than an avowed atheist. But then again some of the most impassioned defences for faith have come from guys like Charles Krauthammer. Theology doesn't matter so much these days as much as Judeo-Christian values. Our founders were a little sketchy on hard Christian theology. But they believed that this nation is only great and will only survived based on its hold of Judeo-Christian principles. I think that at least intinsically most Americans get that.
Atheism isn't the enemy of Christians (in my view). Atheism is itself a form of faith - perhaps faith that there is not a supreme being?
The Dems, in actively opposing Christianity due to some odd stereotypes, show that once again they are all surface and no substance. While there are some fundamentalist groups that take a hard line on women, homosexuality, {insert favorite issue here} there are many groups that are based on the belief that we are saved by grace. Not by acts, not by what we are/aren't, who we sleep with, how much we donate, etc. We're saved by grace, whether we deserve it or not. I daresay none of us could hope to earn salvation, and none of us has earned the right to sit in judgment of others.
If Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, etc., even if they don't care for each other, can still stand together under the Christian umbrella, then a few of us outside it can still appreciate the values they all share. The Dems simply cannot GET that. They are a party of division--their idea of "multiculturalism" begins and ends at one's skin tone. I like to think that skin tone is the one thing that is of NO importance to the rest of us.
We should keep a daily thread going on this and keep track of the Dems rhetoric in the coming months. Would be fun!
Every one of them that I have seen or read is trying to squeeze the democrtic platform into Christianty, whereas policy flows from faith for Christians.
The more they try to act like they support religion, the more obvious it is that they don't.
Very well said.
I like to think that skin tone is the one thing that is of NO importance to the rest of us.
It is also often the one thing a person can do nothing about. I prefer to think of people on their own terms.
I couldn't agree more! Dems seem to love to sweep in, create a division if they can't find a convenient one. Better yet, create a vicimized group. Then promise big-daddy socialist govt. will make it all better if only they would elect them...
Well, they are friendly to satan worshippers, witches, and islamonazis.
"tolerance"...their keyword. It takes the place of "God".
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