A Bit More On Knee Jerking
by tristero
[UPDATE: pastordan in comments supplied the following links to those interested in a progressive religious response to the religious right. I’ve only glanced at them, but they look like they might have something of interest:
Digby’s spot on here to object to Amy Sullivan’s aside about the “knee jerk left’s” utterly mythical objection to devoutly religious candidates. For a long time, Sullivan has been a strong advocate of increasing the amount of God Talk among candidates for high political office. This is a terrible idea, primarily because it is irrelevant and will solve nothing. The real issue is quite clear and it’s not a religious one at all, but simply a strategic one.
God is not a card-carrying Republican.
Republicans have been claiming a God monopoly for well over 30 years, and national Democrats as well as liberals have let them get away with it. That is very, very stupid. If a cheap scumbag like Santorum keeps saying, as he has, that John Kennedy wasn’t really a Catholic president, then Catholic Democrats should wrap that canard around Santorum’s slimy little neck. But that’s not all. And then they should chase Santorum back into his church and refuse to concede that his perverted political philosophy has anything to do with the real practice, let alone the pressing concerns, of true American Catholics.
And then you let Santorum hang himself explaining why his “Catholic faith” comes before his Americanism.
It might seem that by calling for Democrats to confront Republicans on religion, I’m somehow agreeing with Amy Sullivan. Not so. I’m not suggesting Democrats out-God Republicans. They already have, people! Since when did Christ call for tax cuts on the rich or abandoning the poor to the flood waters? No, what I’m suggesting is that Democrats and liberals make it impossible for Republicans to cynically work the God angle without a serious fight.
Politicians that advocate the legal murder or mutilation of poor women should be ashamed, not proud, to tout such immoral “beliefs” in public. It is outrageous to claim that death by coathanger is God’s Will. Making this point (or a similar one in more politically attuned rhetoric) doesn’t mean shilling for a particular religious practice. But it does mean that you have to be quite comfortable with politcal arguments over religion, and quite confident that Bible thumpers can be confronted on their multiple hypocrisies, and lose.