HoDean, always good for a quote:
“You know, the Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people. They’re a pretty monolithic party. Pretty much, they all behave the same, and they all look the same… It’s pretty much a white Christian party,” the former Vermont Governor [Howard Dean] told a San Francisco roundtable in reaction to a question about the lack of outreach to minority communities by political parties….
The comments are another example of why the former Vermont governor, who remains popular with the party’s grassroots, has been a lightning rod for criticism since being elected to head the Democratic National Committee last February. His comments last week that Republicans “never made an honest living in their lives,” which he later clarified to say Republican “leaders,” were disavowed by leading Democrats including Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.
Pretty funny coming from a former governor of a 97% white state. One could say that, at least demographically, the Democrats are a “Christian” party, given that over 90% of Americans identify themselves as Christians, over twice the number that say they’re Democrats.
Unless “Christian” is a code word for “Evangelical” or “fundamentalist,” Dean probably means that the Republican party is the home for people who place their faith first in their lives. This nutty little man will drive off religiously serious voters, who tend to be morally conservative but are probably persuadable when it comes to, say, education or tax cuts.
And that’s bad for the country. Both major political parties ought to be friendly toward religious voters — they used to be. 1984 was the first year that (to my knowledge) a pro-abortion Democrat ran for national office. Evangelicals used to split their votes between the parties, and Catholics used to vote overwhelmingly for Democrats.
Now, one major political party forces believing, orthodox Christians to betray or ignore their faith, if they vote for its candidates. You cannot be in favor of medical experiments on tiny human beings, gay marriage, easy divorce, condoms for schoolkids, abortion, and pornography, and reconcile that with Christianity. In the long run, you either cast your lot with the ways of the world, or the ways of God. It isn’t that the GOP is the party of God and the Democrats aren’t; that is far too simplistic. Rather, the Democratic platform contains elements that go against the plain meaning of Scripture and 2,000 years of Christian tradition. On top of that, a large number of Democrats hate — the word is not too strong — people of faith and disdain them with words normally reserved for people who commit mass murder or high treason.
Democrats will either abandon their quixotic quest to build their free-love, quasi-socialistic, pacifist utopia because the American people have rejected it, or they will convince Americans that the post-Christian society is the way to go. The only way they’ve been able to keep their party going is through racial demagoguery and promises to sustain middle-class welfare programs like Social Security and Medicare. Most Americans don’t think that 13-year-old girls should have sex, much less get abortions without their parents’ permission, and they don’t think two men can make a marriage. If the party would drop its advocacy of those two issues alone, it would cause serious damage by stealing away weakly committed Republicans. But then a lot of hard-core Democrats would have to abandon deeply-held religious beliefs of their own, whether or not they label those beliefs as such.
My fear is that, what with fundraisers quitting the DNC and all, and this latest outburst, Dean might not be around long enough to influence the 2006 elections. It will be fun while it lasts, though.
And to think I wished Terry McAuliffe would stick around for another four years….
It’s a long way down the Greem Mountains from Calvin Coolidge and the Ethan Allen boys to the Dean of Democ(rats)…Hang in there, Howard…we need you!!
I have been a registered Republican for many years. If the Democrats would put forth someone I considered ethical, who was pro-life and pro-family, I’d seriously consider voting for him or her. When Daniel Patrick Moynihan was in the Senate I consistently voted for him each and every year he was up for election. I consider it a travesty to the order of the universe that Hillary’s fat ass is warming that great man’s seat. :P
Way to go Dr. Dean!
Conservatives and Republicans everywhere are cheering every time you give a speech. Dean makes it so easy to expose the Democratic Party’s contempt for Christianity.
I wish I could sit Dean down and explain something.
It’s not that the Republicans are ‘the Christian party,’ it’s that the Democrats have become ‘the Anti-Christian party.’
Let’s see–every time Democrats open their mouths on religion they seem to be telling Christians–especially white, male, Christians–GET LOST!!! You have no rights. You have no business bringing your values into the public forum—although Foul-mouthed Whoopi Goldberg, and every other Hollywood Hates America crowd is greeted with open arms and praised as “Great Americans.” One only wishes liberal Democrats would give as much respect to the Bible as they do to the Koran. They are horrified that some urine may have accidentaly gotten on a Koran..How come no
one in the liberal media during their dragging out of this controversy recalled how liberals fought tooth and nail to keep money flowing to artists who put crucifixes in urine and feces on icons of Mary