More Religion

If the Democrats want to win they have to start talking more about religion. Have you heard this one? It's something I keep hearing repeated again and again. Somehow the Democrats just aren't praying enough or something, right?

What's even worse, of course, is that when people say "talk more about religion" they really mean "talk more about Christianity." Maybe you could get away with it if you're Jewish. You could remind people that Jesus was a Jew, or not. It might upset some people who prefer to believe he was a white European.

This all goes back to that nonsense about how "values" were a determining factor in the presidential election. But what exactly do Bush supporters value? They certainly don't value human rights or the rule of law, or our constitution or international law. They certainly don't value the belief that war should only be the last option. They certainly don't value our beliefs on chemical weapons, torture, and general rules of conduct enough to abide by them. They don't value the spirit of social security and the belief that we're in this together. And they certainly do not value the maxim of love they neighbor as thyself.

If I wanted my politicians to talk more about religion, I'd move to a theocracy. No thanks, folks. How about less talking and more doing? How about we hook up every politician to a lie detector machine before they go on air and lie to us? How about every time George Bush tries to say he wants to "reform" Social Security, someone reminds him that reform means to fix, not abolish?

What we really, really, really want--if any of the Republicrats are listening--are political parties that actually represent the beliefs and values of the American people. And if you think the views of 300,000,000 people can be boiled down to two parties, you're sadly mistaken. You've got your capitalist business parties: the democrats and republicans. What we really want is democratic substance, not just form. And in the wise words of somebody I can't remember:

Freedom without choice is the devil's gift.

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