With all due respect, I don't think this election was won just on gay marriage or by pitting evangelicals against homosexuals or vice versa.
Really.
I think it goes a whole lot deeper than that. I think the left in general and the DNC in particular have so thoroughly alienated conservative evangelicals that the dems may not recover.
I think that evangelicals see themselves as arrayed against the whole culture. For example, if you believe in a young earth and are a strict creationist and you see bumper stickers and Darwin fish mocking you it communicates something about how you and your values are viewed. If you try to stand for what you believe is right and you are told it is hate speech and unacceptable but then discover that hate speech directed at you is acceptable, it communicates something about how much you and your values are valued.
I know a lot of Christians voted for Bush because they believe he is a wonderful Godly man, but, really, I don't think it would have mattered one iota who the Republicans ran as long as he communicated that it was acceptable to be a conservative Christian. I think this election was lost by the Democratic Party because of what the Democratic Party stands for in a lot of people's minds - intolerance of conservative Christianity and conservative Christian values.
Further, I think the schism is going to get deeper and wider, not shallower and narrower. I know Gary is deeply committed to the concept of separation of church and state. He's entitled to his opinion, but many Christians don't think he's right and they have some good reasons for thinking that.
The phrase separation cannot be found in the constitution. Thomas Jefferson made the statement about a wall of separation in a letter to the Danbury Baptists and the founder’s intent, as indicated by their writings, was that the first amendment would prevent the establishment of a state church like the Anglican Church in England or the Lutheran church in Norway or the Catholic Church in Spain.
I think there are people who, formerly, might have been willing to live and let live who have been pushed too far over the whole separation issue. The whole Ten Commandments in the courthouse in Mississippi could have been easily dealt with if it had been treated as a tenth amendment issue instead of a first amendment issue. But because it was treated as a first amendment issue it enraged people on both sides and, I think, gave Bush a kick-start.
I think the fact that Daschall lost his seat speaks volumes for the mood of the heartland toward the dems. I think if they don't make some concessions things are going to get mighty ugly.
Unfortunately, if they do make concessions, things are also going to get mighty ugly. |