Reply #10: I don't think so.

[Berry Cool]

I'm reading a book on it right now: "The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right" by Michael Lerner.

The thesis of this book (written by a rabbi) is this:

The reason the Republicans and the religious right have coopted America as successfully as they have is because they have found a way to address the spiritual needs all people have for something beyond money and the accumulation of worldly goods. All people have these spiritual needs, whether or not they choose to believe in any kind of deity at all. However, the religious right is the only segment of American society successfully addressing these needs for some people. That is why Republicans have been so successful.

Democrats, on the other hand, claim to be the party that is about inclusiveness and social justice, but they also have steadfastly refused to couple these values with any kind of spiritual values. Quite the opposite--they have maintained that spiritual values do not belong in the political arena at all. As a result, they tend to alienate those seeking a place to exercise their spiritual values, whereas the Republicans welcome such people with open arms--or at least make them feel welcome for a while.

He says the only way Democrats will be able to turn things around--and it won't happen overnight--is if they decide to embrace spirituality (even if not "religiosity") as a core value and the source of the values they promote (resting on the worth of all human beings) in opposition to the values Republicans promote (resting on the values of the corporation). They need to do this even if it loses them some elections, rather than trying to be "Republican Lite," straying from their own values and pretending to share the values of the Republicans in order to put up viable candidates and win elections. I.e., he believes the only way they will ever get anywhere is to be brave enough to provide a clear alternative. Not candidates who claim to stand for certain values but then modify their stances when they see their poll numbers go down.

He also points out that it's entirely possible to be spiritual, or religious, and to still believe that the natural world is run by the rules of science. In other words, God and Darwin are not necessarily two mutually exclusive concepts.

I think he's got some excellent points. So long as some Dems regard religion and spirituality as the enemy, or as standing in opposition to reason and rationality, it's going to be very, very hard for the whole party to communicate its values successfully. It will continue to be regarded as "the party that has no values" (not true) while the Republican party takes the credit for having all the values--when the truth is, so many of their "values" are mere biases, superstitions and hatreds cloaked in the guise of religious faith.

on edit: To make it clear where this author is coming from: he is NOT a Republican and NOT conservative. He is FOR the values Democrats traditionally espouse. He just thinks they're going about it the wrong way and they are not sticking to their guns when it comes to their own values. And I'm inclined to agree. As for all this supposed "religion" in the Dems, I sure don't see it. What I see just from reading DU--in other words, not from those right-controlled media--is that the Flying Spaghetti Monster seems to be more popular and easier to express a belief in than any sort of deity at all. In the eyes of some, to believe in a deity is to be superstitious and stupid.

As long as that kind of attitude thrives in progressive people, it's going to be hard for them to get together and fight for the values they have in common, whether they believe in deities, or the same deities, or not.