Since Election Day, there has been no shortage of explanations to rationalize the Dems’ defeat. The least persuasive, and most annoying, is the myth that Dems have become an excessively secular party, either indifferent or hostile to religion. The charge is utterly ridiculous.
Summarizing the attack today is Richard Viguerie and David Franke in an LA Times op-ed.
As recently as the 1960s and ’70s, the Democrats had a strong and vocal religious contingent opposing the war in Vietnam and marching for social justice…. Since then, though, the Democrats have effectively banished God from their public face, just as they have run pro-life Democrats out of the party, no matter how liberal they were on economic issues.
This Democratic God-cleansing paid handsome dividends in 2004 — for the Republicans. Until the Democrats learn how to bring God back into the discussion, they have little hope of returning to power.
There simply aren’t enough voters in Berkeley, Santa Monica, Santa Fe, Manhattan and Cambridge to offset the many concerned evangelicals, Catholics and Jews in the rest of the nation for whom moral values are a determining issue. Even minority groups — the backbone of the party’s support — are ditching the party over these issues. Since the Democrats claim to be the party of science, perhaps one of their Nobel laureates can explain the math to them.
The obvious anti-intellectual slap at Nobel laureates aside, the argument is typical of the right under Bush — creating its own reality to justify misguided ideas. It’s enough to make we wonder if I live in the same country as Viguerie and Franke — and whether these two are actually paying attention to what’s going on in American politics.
Instead of Dems becoming more irreligious over the last generation, just the opposite is true. The last two Dem presidents were Southern Baptists who frequently cited scripture and attended church services on a weekly basis. Indeed, it is John Kerry who attends weekly church services — while Bush, like Reagan before him, doesn’t find the time to go.
I had hoped we had put this nonsense to rest four years ago, but apparently Viguerie and Franke are slow learners. In fact, it was the Gore-Lieberman ticket that should have shattered this misperception of the hyper-secular Dems once and for all. Gore, for example, 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.
Four years later, the trend has kept up. The DNC has hired 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 media that we “worship an awesome God in the Blue states” — and Al Sharpton, who happens to be a Christian minister.
It was also true in the primaries. Wesley Clark made his three Fs — freedom, faith, and family — part of his stump speech. Howard Dean was referencing the book of Job, emphasizing the role of religion in his public policy decisions, and citing the example Jesus set. John Edwards explained, “[M]y faith has been enormous to me in my personal life and of course my personal life is a big impact on my political life.”
In the campaign’s final months, hardly a weekend went by that we couldn’t find Kerry and Edwards attending church services and seeking support from congregants. In fact, a standard part of Kerry’s stump speech told audiences: “The scriptures say, ‘It is not enough, my brother, to say you have faith, when there are no deeds.'”
When Kerry was asked if there was anything he liked from Bush’s first term that he might pursue as president, he said he supported the principles behind the White House “faith-based” initiative. 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.
Since the election, the most important step the Dems have taken so far is choosing a new Senate Minority Leader. Did they back a Unitarian from Berkley? No, they quickly rallied behind a devout, anti-abortion Mormon from Nevada.
Does any of this sound like a secular political party hostile towards faith? Is there even a hint of “God-cleansing”?
Viguerie and Franke also suggest religious voters shifting away from the Dems, without pointing to any evidence. The fact is, the single most religious voting constituency in the country is African Americans, who, on Election Day, backed Kerry — 89% to 11%. Yes, secular voters also prefer Democrats by wide margins, but that doesn’t make the party anti-religion; it makes the party diverse.
The Viguerie and Franke op-ed, and others just like it, are attacking a caricature, which far too many are deceived into believing. Dems are working diligently to embrace people of faith and convince voters that the party is attuned to religion and religious values. It’s exactly why the right has to keep spreading this ridiculous myth.