Political Views,

What Democrats Must Do to Take Our Country Back
by John Graham

Happy holidays. Or, as Pat Robertson prefers, Merry Christmas.

However you describe this season, it's an appropriate time to talk about faith. Faith matters in a country where 96% of people say they believe in God. Faith also matters to the Democratic Party, and to progressives generally, since the Right has learned to use its political power and the Left has not.

Let's start with the obvious: the political power of conservative Christians has become formidable.

30 years ago conservative Christians were a political fringe element in this country. They practiced their faith and kept pretty much under the political radar, even though they numbered in the tens of millions. Then, as we all know, the Republican Party successfully began to woo conservative Christians, leading with hot button social issues like abortion and homosexuality. The marriage benefited both sides.

The GOP got votes generated by the power of grassroots organizing in churches across the country, votes that in a short amount of time gave them control of the federal government and, in many instances, state and local governments as well. Conservative Christians got more political power behind their social agenda.

Democrats have always been a little cynical about this alliance, observing that clever pols in the Republican Party promise the moon to conservative Christians then, when the time comes to deliver real policy shifts, offer up far less.

Now it seems that the Republicans may have created their own Sorcerer's Apprentice. Radical  extremists like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and James Dobson have gained enormous influence over Christian conservatives in this country and now would lead them on a campaign-and the radicals are very clear about this-to force the social and cultural fabric of this nation into a strict Biblical mold.

To these extremists (call them the Christian Far Right), not only is the Bible the literal word of God, what it says trumps any other religious, social or political thought or belief. Their opponents are not only wrong-they are with the anti-Christ, and doomed to eternal damnation. The commitment of the Christian Far Right to intolerance is complete. It's clear they will keep up their assault on America until they are stopped. They have become our Taliban.

Democrats still seem confused and uncertain about how to deal with this threat. I offer these thoughts:

1. The Democratic Party should finally take conservative Christians seriously. Too many Democrats, even after the 2004 election, still tend to roll their eyes and snicker: "Do you believe those yokels in Kansas?" they ask. "They not only want to teach their kids that the earth was made in a week-they've written a whole new, Bible-friendly definition of science!"

Conservative Christians see contempt from Democrats as both an insult and a threat. It makes them listen more attentively to their own extremists, it drives them to continue to vote against their own economic interests, and it stimulates them to work even harder for Republican candidates.

Whatever Democrats may think of the religious beliefs of conservative Christians, they've got to get smarter about dealing with them in the political sphere. Otherwise Democrats will snicker themselves right into more electoral defeats.

2. Extreme Christian views are as American as apple pie. They didn't start with Jerry Falwell-they landed with the Pilgrims. Forget the myth of that first Thanksgiving Day. The Pilgrims were Pat Robertsons in funny hats.

They came with their Bibles turned to the Book of Exodus. They were the new Israelites, fleeing the English Pharaoh.  America, overflowing with milk and honey, was the Promised Land. Just as the first Israelites under God's guidance conquered the heathen in laying claim to their Promised Land, so too would these new Israelites conquer the heathen natives. The Pilgrims and the Book of Exodus laid the basis for the concept of Manifest Destiny, the rationalization for the ruthless expansion of American power.

The Bible's Book of Revelations is another pivotal component of the belief system of conservative Christians, and especially of the Christian Far Right. The Revelations story has been recently popularized in the so-called Left Behind books, which have sold tens of millions of copies.

Briefly, it's a story of how the world will end. As the process starts, a few who unswervingly obey God's laws will be physically "raptured up" directly into heaven. Those who remain will be subject for seven years to the reigning power of the Anti-Christ. Finally, there will be a great battle in which Christ returns, not as gentle savior but warrior king. He slays the anti-Christ (and all the rest of the skeptics) in a bloodbath that makes the Holocaust look mild.

The Left Behind series makes it plain that American believers will predominate among the saved and will be key allies of Christ in the battle with the Anti-Christ. Conservative Christians believe that America is the obvious site for the 1000 years of peace and glory that Revelations says will follow Christ's victory.

In Revelations, as in Exodus, America is where the Bible is said to play out in our times. All anyone has to do to be saved is read the Bible to find God's will (or listen to preachers eager to find it for them)-and then carry out His mandates. Tens of millions of Americans have held this belief for almost 400 years, and it won't disappear anytime soon. And now it's the source of enormous political power.

3. Not all conservative Christians are on the Christian Far Right, and Democrats should stop lumping them together. Tens of millions of Americans revere the Bible as the Word of God, even if they don't take every passage as literally true, or insist that all others must share their views. Conservative Christianity provides hope, comfort, support and guidance to many people. My mother was a conservative Catholic, and she died with a broad smile across her face, as she prepared to meet her Maker. Her Christian faith sustained her until the end, as it does for many.

When Democrats lump all religious conservatives together, and then, worse, are contemptuous of them as an undifferentiated lot, many conservative Christians see this as ignorant and prejudiced at best. At worst, they become easier targets for the Christian Far Right preachers who tell them that political opposition to Christian-favored policies is the work of the devil. Lumping all religious conservatives together can drive otherwise reasonable people into the arms of the unreasonable.

Democrats will never get the votes of the Christian Far Right.  But they can and must get the votes of many conservative Christians by making them increasingly aware and uncomfortable with the company they are keeping. A key aim of Democrats must be to create a message and a vision powerful enough to drive a wedge between conservative Christians and the far-right leaders who now presume to speak for them.

4. Democratic candidates need to get more comfortable with God. Both the Republican Party and its Far Right Christian allies want to discredit Democrats as "Godless"-the Republicans because it increases their credibility with the Christians, and the Christians because they really believe it.

Democrats as a whole may go to Church less often than Republicans, but that's not the problem. The problem is that too many Democratic candidates look stiff and insincere if and when they do talk about their faith. Republicans tend to be much better at God-talk, and it wins them votes.

I'm not saying that Democrats must thump a book of scripture. Nor should they change their beliefs or fake them. But Democratic candidates need to get more relaxed in talking about issues of God and faith or, if they are non-believers, about the ethical frameworks that guide their lives.

That ease in talking about issues of faith, that kind of honest and personal reflection, will blunt negative knee-jerk reactions among conservative Christians and help make many of them at least comfortable enough with Democratic candidates so they can hear and evaluate a political message.

In Virginia, Democrat Tim Kaine this fall was candid about his faith and won the Governorship of a conservative state.

This year I spoke on the theme of moral leadership to the cadets at the Air Force Academy and to the Midshipmen at the Naval Academy. I told them that courage and discipline were not enough, that successful leaders had to have a moral context for their lives, a pole star connected to something bigger than they are. If they chose to call this something God, I told them, then it had to be a God they found themselves, not one they'd inherited or had shoved down their throats. These young future officers stood and cheered. During the Q&A, one cadet at the Air Force Academy-which has been notoriously connected to the Christian Far Right-asked me if I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I told him that I did not, and then explained my personal spirituality with as much candor and completeness as I could. The next cadet's question was, "When are you going to run for President?"

So it's possible to talk about personal spiritual or religious views in ways that engage a broad audience. Democrats just have to have the confidence to do it.

5. Take back the Bible.
Conservative Christians tend to focus on the Old Testament and the Book of Revelations. But didn't Jesus come to bring a new message, one of compassion and forgiveness? I think the Christian Far Right finds the Sermon on the Mount deeply inconvenient. They much prefer Christ as the warrior of Revelations, coming as the God of vengeance to smite the unbelievers. Democrats need to support theologians like Jim Wallis who are working hard to remind people of what Jesus really was about. The title of Wallis's latest book says it all: God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It.

These five steps are just the preparation. They are what Democrats must do to even have a chance of countering the Christian Far Right.

Thus prepared, Democrats need to create positive themes that resonate with the electorate-including many conservative Christians-and then to draw from these themes a compelling vision for the future. From these themes and this vision, Democrats can then construct a domestic and foreign policy agenda for change.

These themes, vision and agenda become the wedge between conservative Christians and the Christian Far Right.  They also become the basis for moving conservative Christians out of the Republican ranks and into the Democratic camp, where the social values of Christianity are better represented.

I think there are two core themes:

The first is national security, including not just physical security from terrorist threats and natural disasters-but also economic security, job security.  The Republicans have done such a terrible job here that Democrats should have no problem in creating a blueprint for doing better. It's a huge discussion, but for another time.

The second core theme is identity: Who are we as Americans?
 
As a people, at our best, we are caring, confident, competent, fair, honest, hard-working, responsible, patriotic and more. Create your own list.

This is no idle puffery, no self-flattering distraction. Many Americans today are confused, fearful, angry, divided and losing confidence in our basic institutions. They will respond to leaders who-by reminding all of us of who we are and who we can be-help us forge the courage and confidence to answer the challenges of our times.