Reverend Dean wants your vote!

If you’re a person of faith, Reverend Howard “yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrgh” Dean is a’courtin’ your vote:

(CNSNews.com) – America is about to revisit one of the most turbulent decades in its history, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told a religious conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. “We’re about to enter the ’60s again,” Dean said, but he was not referring to the Vietnam War or racial tensions.

Dean said he is looking for “the age of enlightenment led by religious figures who want to greet Americans with a moral, uplifting vision.”

[…]

Dean’s comments Tuesday came at a religious gathering convened in the nation’s capital to discuss ways of eliminating poverty. After stating that America “is about as divided as it has been probably since the Civil War,” Dean declared that “we need to come together around moral principles, and I’m talking about moral principles like making sure no child goes to bed hungry at night.”

“I’m talking about moral principles like making sure everybody in America has health insurance just like 36 other countries in the world,” he added. “This is a moral nation, and we want it to be a moral nation again.”

Hmmm. I wonder if someone had the nerve to stand up and ask (as so often happens with conservatives like myself who assert that sometimes it feel’s like the nation’s morals are going down the tube) “Bbbbut by whose standard are you talking about on the morals thing?”

Dean actually made a few good points, if one sifts through the moral and religious pandering. Such as the acknowledgement of the harm that some of the 60s liberal ‘feel good’ policies did to our nation:

The problem is when we hit that ’60s spot again, which I am optimistic we’re about to hit, we have to make sure that we don’t make the same mistakes,” Dean added. See Video

[…]

Another mistake Democrats made in the ’60s, Dean acknowledged, was that “we did give things away for free, and that’s a huge mistake because that does create a culture of dependence, and that’s not good for anybody, either,” he noted, a reference to the Great Society welfare programs created by Democratic President Lyndon Johnson in the mid-1960s.
See Video

Continuing on the Democrats and religion theme, Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill) chastised Democrats today for not taking into account how much of a role faith plays in the lives of millions of Americans. He, too, made some good points:

WASHINGTON — Sen. Barack Obama chastised fellow Democrats on Wednesday for failing to “acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people,” and said the party must compete for the support of evangelicals and other churchgoing Americans.

“Not every mention of God in public is a breach to the wall of separation. Context matters,” the Illinois Democrat said in remarks to a conference of Call to Renewal, a faith-based movement to overcome poverty. [note from ST: I think this is the same conference Dean attended]

[…]

Obama coupled his advice with a warning. “Nothing is more transparent than inauthentic expressions of faith: the politician who shows up at a black church around election time and claps _ off rhythm _ to the gospel choir.”

LOL! Isn’t that the truth?

At the same time, he said, “Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering the public square.”

As a result, “I think we make a mistake when we fail to acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people and join a serious debate about how to reconcile faith with our modern, pluralistic democracy.”

The lefty blogosphere reaction to Obama’s remarks? To paraphrase: “You’re just perpetuating the ‘myth’ that the left is intolerant of the religious beliefs of others, and we’re pi$$ed! Sellout!”

Barrack Obama is considered by many to be a ‘rising star’ in the Democratic party. But if he keeps ‘selling out’ (read: actually being honest about religious issues that confront the Democratic party) like that, he’ll remain a Senator, rather than a VP contender.

It’ll be interesting to see how the Democratic party continues to try and court the religious vote this year. They may do so at the expense of further irritating their base, and alienating them.

Not that I’m complaining or anything ;)

Hat tip on the CNS link: Patrick Hynes

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