It’s becoming quite irritating. Every few months, the LA Times runs an op-ed column insisting that Dems have an antagonistic attitude towards religion and are indifferent towards voters who take faith seriously.
About a year ago it was Tony Quinn insisting in an LAT column that Dems are “irreligious” and “hostile” towards faith. Six months later, it was an op-ed by Richard Viguerie and David Franke that argued Dems had instigated a “God-cleansing” effort in recent years, culminating in a “banish[ment]” of God “from their public face.”
Yesterday, the LAT op-ed page sought to drive the point home again, this time at the hands of USC history professor Kevin Starr, who identified himself in the piece as a Dem. Like his predecessors, Starr embraced the myth that Dems have become an excessively secular party.
[N]ow the Democratic Party elite — the activists, the pundits, the big-bucks donors — have succeeded in pitting social democracy against the very values (one is tempted to say the very people) that gave rise to social democracy in the first place.
Baffled by such rejection, an ostracized faith community shows every sign of realigning itself politically…. Enough already! Let Democratic movers and shakers take one last look at those they are demonizing, because many are their brothers and sisters, social democrats driven into exodus by party excesses.
Like the previous two op-eds on the same subject, Starr bolsters his case by pointing to … nothing in particular. No examples, no anecdotes, no proof of any “demonizing” at all. Starr went on an 830-word tirade about Dems rejecting faith, culture, and tradition, but offered literally zero instances to illustrate his point. The observation is simply offered as a given, as if it were too obvious a fact to warrant an explanation.
As long as the LA Times feels the need to keep publishing these eerily similar pieces, I’ll feel the need to debunk them.
Honestly, how many election cycles will it take for Dems to shake free of this useless, caricature-like myth? The Gore-Lieberman ticket should have shattered this misperception of the hyper-secular Dems once and for all. Gore proclaimed himself a “born-again Christian” in an interview on 60 Minutes during the campaign. He told the Washington Post that he often asks himself, “WWJD” — a Christian catch phrase meaning “what would Jesus do?” The very day Lieberman was introduced as Gore’s running mate, he raised a few eyebrows by opening his first campaign address in Tennessee with a prayer and a recitation from the Book of Chronicles.
In 2004, the Dems were no less obvious. The DNC, for example, hired a full-time staff for religious outreach. At the Dem convention, the two most celebrated and inspirational speeches were delivered by Barack Obama — who reminded the nation that Dems “worship an awesome God in the Blue states” — and Al Sharpton, who happens to be a Christian minister.
Soon after, John Kerry was reminding audiences that he attends weekly church services and was an alter boy. Indeed, his standard stump speech told audiences: “The scriptures say, ‘It is not enough, my brother, to say you have faith, when there are no deeds.'” And in the final presidential debate, it was Kerry citing the Bible (twice) and explaining how his faith plays a role in driving a progressive political agenda.
And how about since the election? When replacing Tom Daschle, the Dems didn’t turn to a Unitarian from Berkley; they picked a devout, anti-abortion Mormon from Nevada. In the House, Dems continue to rally behind Nancy Pelosi, who’s a devout, life-long Catholic, and who began developing a “faith agenda” — an internal party effort to recapture faith-based voters — shortly after Congress convened a couple of months ago.
And yet, there was Kevin Starr, arguing yesterday that Dems are “leaving the faithful behind.” It’s as if he and I are looking at two different countries.