Posted on 08/13/2005 4:32:34 PM PDT by new yorker 77
The only Democrat to unseat a Republican member of the U.S. Senate in the last two cycles - Mark Pryor of Arkansas - told a gathering of frustrated centrist Democrats a couple of years ago that one of his out-of-state consultants did some research and concluded that Pryor ought to talk about his religious faith in every speech.
Pryor said he was wholly comfortable doing that, and pretty much did so. He also ran a television commercial showing his family with bowed heads around the dinner table.
He earned 54 percent of the vote while Democrats were getting their clocks cleaned everywhere else, especially in other parts of the South.
Pryor's advantage was that he appeared not to be faking anything, most likely because he wasn't.
A serious cancer scare in early adulthood had influenced him to membership in an interdenominational and evangelical church. The preacher in that church interviewed him in a dubious and challenging way about Pryor's hairsplitting position on abortion - he thinks it's wrong, but that repeal of Roe v. Wade would be an impossible mess - and published the transcript on the church Web site.
The published dialogue showed that Pryor held his own with the minister on Christian theology, both in terms of Biblical passages and modern literature.
So, last week the Democracy Corps - an alliance of Democrat strategists founded by old Clintonites like James Carville and Stanley Greenberg - released findings of focus group studies among disaffected George Bush supporters in Colorado and Kentucky and rural voters in Arkansas and Wisconsin.
They found that nearly all the economic issues work among those rural voters to the benefit of Democrats, but that it doesn't matter because cultural issues are defining.
Particularly among non-college rural voters, there was little awareness of differences between Democrats and Republicans on health care, prescription drugs, economic policy and retirement security. Those voters assumed that the party closest to them on cultural issues would be closest to them on other issues as well.
An unidentified rural voter in Arkansas was quoted putting it this way: "I'm proud to be an American because of the way this country was founded. And (Republicans) stand up for this nation's Christian heritage. There's no question that - I believe this with all my heart - this country is blessed the way it has been for all these years because of the way it was founded. And God's looked on us favorably. And I think Republicans have that at heart, most of them do. And it shows in the moral stance they take. Because you hear all the time that there are no absolutes, but there truly is, and I think (Republicans) recognize that and try to push that in their agenda."
Unless a Democrat can connect with that fellow naturally, he'd best not try it. Howard Dean recently went to Arkansas talking about how Jesus preached more like a Democrat than a Republican, and it was fairly laughable.
Dean met in Arkansas with Tim Wooldridge, a Church of Christ lay preacher who is running as a Democrat for lieutenant governor. "I told him you have to be real, to be bona fide," Woodridge said, "because if you're not, you're going to smack of hypocrisy and gag people."
The fact is that many Democrats are like I am. They think the aforementioned rural voter in Arkansas has a narrow view of the world that actually contradicts true religion. We don't think God blesses his children in geographically based rewards. We think America was founded on religious freedom, not Christian religion. And we see plenty to be ambivalent about.
Any Democrat so inclined had best run on the two coasts and the upper Midwest and let the Rick Santorums and the rare Mark Pryor or Tim Wooldridge have the in-between, at least until this religious-right mania subsides, as we pray it will.
Brummett is an award-winning columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock and author of "High Wire," a book about Bill Clinton's first year as president. His e-mail address is jbrummett@arkansasnews.com.
How many people would have known about this turncoat Hackett and his campaign had Rush not mentioned it? I sure wouldn't have...though I don't live in Ohio.
From the article:
". . .at least until this religious-right mania subsides, as we pray it will."
Sounds like hypocrisy to me.
The false prophets come aplenty.
The false prophets come aplenty.
sorry for the double post, operator error
Or become a nun.
Unfortunately I trashed (as it deserved) the letter but what Pryor said (as accurately as I can state it) was the charges made by Durbin were serious and probable enough to warrant further investigation ... blah blah blah.
Since I had made a specific request as to his opinion of the treasonous remarks by durbin - and he did not directly respond to that request - since I am not a lawyer, I take that as his agreement with durbin's remarks since he did NOT refute them.
If he did NOT agree with Durbin, he had his chance to say so. If he was to cowardly to respond honestly - that is his problem and his silence means complicity.
bump
I'm not impressed...he got "scared" into religion.
I hear you.
Democrats support abortion,homosexuality and taking God out of the fabric of American life.A Christian cant be part of any of that.There`s no room for discussion,some things are black and white,this is one of them.There is no such thing as a pro choice Christian.Having said all that,Moderate Republicans will burn in the same hell as liberal democrats.But we are talking about Christians,and Christians cant condone any of these evils ie homosexuality,abortion taking the Lords name out of the public square.I have no respect for anyone that says they are a Christian yet votes democrat.Peace love out
Mark Pryor won the election because Tim Hutchinson dumped his wife of 29 years to marry a staffer he was having an affair with, even though he's a Baptist preacher. If he had dropped out of the race and another credible Republican (like his brother Asa Hutchinson or then-Governor Mike Huckabee) had run in his place, Pryor would have lost.
Pryor didn't so much win the election as he had it handed to him by his opponent.
I agree. My sister who is a Clinton voter/democrat (and claims to be a conservative democrat--sure) told me that although she didn't like Kerry, if he decided to add McCain to the ticket then she would have no problem voting for them...but she would never ever vote for Bush. So I definitely agree that McCain may actually take more votes away from the dems than republicans...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.