Think back to November 2004. President Bush just won reelection. Most actively religious people in the U.S. were cheering. Many, a minority, of sincerely religious people were not. They spent a lot of time pondering the issue of why so many religious people voted for Bush and other Republicans. Hundreds of articles and a long list of books were written on the subject. How could the Left get religious people to vote for Leftists? (Don’t you remember the amusing scene of Hillary Clinton reminding everybody how religious she really is?)
Now, fast forward to 2006.
This article just published in Slate makes the point better than I can.
Take a look at this article.
The Democratic Party’s one-time VP candidate, Joe Lieberman, is in a race for his political life. As you know, he lost the Democratic primary in Connecticut this week. An Orthodox Jew, Lieberman is, in many ways, potentially the consummate liberal religious candidate. He was an early supporter of the civil rights movement mostly for religious reasons, and he has taken many moral stances over his career while citing his religious viewpoint. If you don’t believe me, ask Jim Wallis, editor of the liberal Christian magazine Sojourners, who wrote:
“Joe Lieberman’s strong advocacy for religion in the public square further establishes a place for moderate and even progressive faith perspectives.” Thanks in part to people like Mr. Lieberman, Mr. Wallis continued, “the religious right is now only one of many voices on issues of political ethics, as it should be.”
As the WSJ article linked above points out, Jim Wallis has abandoned Joe Lieberman, as have all of his one-time friends.
As far as I’m concerned, the Left can spend all day beating up moderate Democrats. Joe Lieberman, who is pro-choice and pro-big government, is way too liberal for me. If he loses in November, I will miss his support of the Iraq war, but if I lived in Connecticut I’d likely not vote for Lieberman anyway. The Republican front-runner is a little-known former mayor but he’s more conservative than Lieberman, and I’d likely vote for him.
But there is a point here that bears remembering. Democrats in late 2004 and early 2005 spent all of their time telling the world about how they were going to reach out to religious Americans. But the Lieberman primary loss shows they have completely forgotten this effort. If they couldn’t support a moderate like Lieberman, who can they support?
In pondering this issue, it might be worthwhile to consider the complete demonization of Lieberman that took place on the Left. Leftist blogs were filled with vitriol and hatred for Lieberman when, in fact, he agrees with them on more issues than he disagrees.
How can this intense hatred be squared with the Democrats’ attempt to be a party with which religious people can be comfortable?