June 2, 2011

Quote of the day

‎"Why do republicans get to claim God and religion as their own when their policies go against 1000 years of traditions such as healing the sick and helping the poor.." Thom Hartmann

6 comments:

steves said...

Let's be realistic. The GOP has been the only one to make a serious effort to court "religious" people. Granted, much of it has been mostly superficial and they haven't really followed through on most of what they claim to value.

I am not sure what they could do differently, but the Democrats just don't seem to do a good job with attracting Christian voters. IMO, they have some good things to offer, but they just don't seem to try.

I don't vote my faith, so I really have no idea what would work.

Streak said...

Hmm, I am not sure that is really true. I would admit that Democrats didn't pander to the religious right as the GOP has done, but they have certainly tried to reach out to people of faith. The problem is that the people who most loudly proclaim their faith as a reason to vote are in the religious right, and they are not actually voting Christian, they are voting Republican. So they are not interested in the Democrats message. That is why they vote for torture and tax cuts for the rich.

steves said...

In other words, the so-called faithful only want to engage in torture and protect the wealthy? How have the democrats reached out to the religious?

Monk-in-Training said...

I think the Democrats have nearly totally ignored people of faith, and most especially Christians. And I think they do that to their detriment.

I wonder if the social justice movement among young people will even be a blip on the Democratic party radar?

Streak said...

No, that isn't a fair restatement of my argument. What I am arguing is that the people who most likely claim to vote their faith, are, in actuality, voting Republican first and foremost, and only secondarily (if that) voting their faith. I fully suspect that if they realized what the tax breaks to the wealthy cost them individually, they would oppose them, but they are buying a Republican (not Christian) line on the economy. Likewise, if Clinton had authorized torture, I honestly suspect that Christian conservatives would have flipped their shit. But because it was one of theirs, and the enemy fit into their world view as an enemy of their view of God--well torture seemed acceptable.

So, to be fair, Democrats have not reached out to those people because they are the Tea Party base of the Republican party (or a subsection of it). But Clinton reached out to moderate religious groups, and worked quite hard to clarify some of the religious/state questions for schools. People like Tony Campolo and Jim Wallis have been part of those campaigns and those administration's outreach to people of faith. But the problem is that most of the people in the middle are more like you--they are pragmatic people who happen to be also people of faith. There is no need for them to reach out to you on the basis of the faith issues.

Streak said...

Monk, how would they do better? Anytime Democrats address faith directly, they are accused of pandering.