Just what WaPo thinks we need: Southern Evangelical Democrats

lambert's picture

I'm all for the 50-state strategy, but it's very telling what kind of Democrat the Village gets excited about, and what kind it ignores (Donna Edwards). WaPo:

Evangelical Democrat Stirs the Pot in Miss.
A wealthy evangelical Christian, John Arthur Eaves Jr., is running a campaign for governor that is rife with what Jesus might do.

He talks about banishing "the money changers" from state politics and about a health-care proposal focusing on the "least among us" -- just as Jesus would -- and the cornerstone of his stump speech is familiar to anyone who knows the bit in Matthew 6:24 about "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."

The 41-year-old plaintiff attorney is waging what might be the most overtly Christian-inspired statewide race in a long time.

Which is quite a statement, given that this is Mississippi.

But what is most startling to Bible Belt voters here, where faith-based appeals most often come from the religious right, is that Eaves is a Democrat.

It's a fact that unsettles both sides of the partisan divide. For if Eaves threatens the Republicans' success in attracting evangelical votes, his conservative positions on social issues irritate traditional Democrats. He opposes abortion and same-sex marriage. He favors teaching creationism alongside evolution. A major thrust of his campaign is a promise to resurrect school prayer.

Unsettled? I'm not unsettled at all. At this point, the Republican brand is so trashed that the theocrats have to run as Democrats. Which is good news, except that now we have to deal with another Bush Dog, this one as Governor, who will sell out progressives and his own people without turning a hair.

Notice that everything in this guy's platform that a progressive might like is at the Federal level, where this guy can't actually do anything about it, and all the Christianist hate triggers that actually affect peoples lives are at the State level.

The Republicans are about to become a regional rump party based on Christianist Kool-Aid drinkers in the South. We need to make certain that happens. We don't have chance in hell of taking any of those votes anyhow, so why care? More importantly, why does the Village paper think the Village should care?

NOTE If this guy wins, I predict a Vice-Presidential boomlet, starting the day after election day.

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Southern Christian Democrats

You have to keep in mind that, at the local/state level,party label is a pretty shaky concept The states had only a single "party" - very loosely organized Democrats - for generations until the Republican Southern Strategy led to the development of the Republicans as an actual, organized party. Politics is still very local, and most Democrats here are far to the right of we transplanted Northerners. The ubiquity of public piety would be a shock to your secular Yankee souls, bless your hearts.

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