5% Nation of Fundamentalists

April 21, 2004

David Shaw says Air America should be more sensitive to Christianity since 64% of Americans claim to attend worship services once a month. (Funny how some people become real guardians of political correctness when they feel offended, isn’t it?) This worries Keven Drum but not me. I mean how many of those 64% are likely to be seriously offended by the mockery of religion?

Of those 64%:

• Some are non-Christian. Although David Shaw says Air America mocks religion, it would be more fair (looking at his citations) to say Air America mocks fundamentalist Christianity.
• Some attend church just to accompany their spouses or other family members.
• Some who are Christian belong to the Christian left, who are likely to mock the same parts of their religion that Air America is mocking.
• Some just don’t want to admit to a stranger they don’t attend worship services.
• Some will be offended but not enough to vote against John Kerry because they will recognize that John Kerry’s views are not necessarily the same as Air America’s.
• Some will be offended but not enough to vote against their own economic interests and civil liberties by supporting a theocratic regime attempting to create Christian Iran here in America.

All of that eats into the 64% likely to be offended. Now, the 64% likely to be most offended:

• Desire the establisment of a Christian theocracy.
• Have mocked atheists, agnostics, Muslims, Buddhists, Unitarian Universalists, Jews, Wiccans. (Which means they “mock religion” according to Shaw’s standards.)
• Are highly unlikely to vote for a party that welcomes atheists, agnostics, Muslims, Buddhists, Unitiarian Universalists, Jews, and Wiccans anyway.
• Will never be persuaded by mere “pandering.”

So, essentially what I see left is a small number of people who are neither particularly involved in religion or politics nor aware of the important issues in religion or politics who are still likely to vote and will cast that vote based on how nice the left is to Christians if they vote at all. Folks, that strikes me as a pretty small group of people to court. Especially, when doing so, you risk alienating the larger group of religiously tolerant, atheists, and agnostics who tend to vote on the liberal side of things.

All parties take positions that cost them votes. The Republicans have decided that they do not need the votes of Muslims, homosexuals, women who wish to be treated as equals, atheists, agnostics, anti-war protestors and death penalty protestors, hippies and pot smokers, and people who feel the government has no business poking into your bank balance on a daily basis. Republicans not only mock and ridicule these groups on air, they do it in print and television. And that’s pretty much their choice.

If we’ve decided we don’t need the vote of the extremely-touchy-when-it’s-them Religious Right in exchange for all the rest, I think it’s a good trade.

Some liberals do need to be more tolerant of religion. But suggesting we need to pretend to be more Christian than we are strikes me as saying “if we were more like Republicans we’d get more Republican votes.” How about we try to represent those people the Republicans feel don’t deserve representation? Maybe some of them will vote for us. I think it’s a good deal: the number of people Republicans don’t like is far more than 50% of the population.

Posted in Politics, Religion