Takes courage to challenge the right wingers on religion. Good op ed.

[madfloridian]

Takes a lot of courage to reframe the debate. It is hard to do. Jim Wallis and Howard Dean have talked. I think there is mutual respect there. I think the article is divisive. I give Dean credit for trying, but no one else is even making an effort.

http://www.etalkinghead.com/archives/howard-dean-is-right-2005-06-16.html

"Let me see -- George W. Bush lies about the reasons for going to war in Iraq. Howard Dean called Republicans “mostly White Christians.” O.K., I agree, Democrats should attack Howard Dean. Get a grip! Haven’t Democrats paid any attention to what has happened since George W. Bush got elected? The day doesn’t go by when the Bush administration doesn’t tell some whopper or launch a smear attack on those who dare to challenge their policies. And I don’t hear much in the way of complaints about it from the Republican Leadership. Even worse, I don’t hear much about it from Democrats.

But Democratic leaders, apparently afraid of offending the sensibilities of some fat cat patron or potential crossover voter say they are outraged by the comments of their recently elected party chair.

Dean is right to challenge them. Democrats need to tap into the growing unease of an American electorate increasingly concerned about the possibility of living under biblical law with Pat Robertson as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. According to a recent survey by ABC News, 40 percent of Americans say that religious conservatives have too much influence over the Republican Party. Americans were intensely opposed to the intervention of the Republican Congress and President Bush into the Terry Schiavo matter. And a new poll by Ipsos/Associated Press finds sixty one percent of Americans disapprove of religious leaders trying to influence government decisions. As political reporter Peter Urban recently wrote in the Connecticut Post, “Americans seem to grow increasingly uncomfortable with an agenda shaped by evangelical Christians.”

"What Howard Dean is doing is trying to reframe the debate, to define the Republican Party for what is has become, a party dominated by extreme elements of the Christian Right where the likes of Pat Robertson and James Dobson hold great sway over judicial nominations and have the ability to push Congress into matters such as the Terri Schiavo debacle. His comments may make some Democrats a little uncomfortable, but my guess is that there are more than a few Republicans increasingly uneasy with the picture Howard Dean is painting..."

[indepat]

1. Americans should be increasingly uncomfortable with agenda of evangelical

Christians, because most of their agenda is either un-Christian-like or in contravention of our Constitution, or both. All the rest of their reichous agenda oozes in hypocrisy and stinks to high heaven.

[heidler1]

2. I was a Dean supporter in his 2004 run.

I thought Dean was a out spoken type, which I like. After 4 years of * Dean's style sraight talk was and is a shocker, but hopefully the people are beginning to like it.

[napi21]

3. I think Dean has the right approach, and has even convinced some Dems

to find their ba**s! Until Howard started stiring the pot, how much dissent did you hear from ANY Dem?

He's not running for anything so he says what he believes, and when the elected Dems see the positive response to what he's doing, some jump on board! Howard needs to continue exctly what he's been doing. He takes a lot of the risk away from the Dems who are always worried about re-election by letting them see the poll results to Howards actions!

Give 'em hell Howard!!!!

[madfloridian]

4. He is getting to the root of it....saying it out loud.

That the Republicans have given in to the extremists. I wish other Democrats would do this as well. I am a Christian, and Howard Dean does not offend me. However those who hijacked my church offend me greatly.

[napi21]

5. I hope not only Dems but Pubs who aren't extremists will see the

light as well! Dean has never really said anything that should offend anyone, unless they are guilty of his accusations!

[madfloridian]

6. His CA speech about reframing...not easy.

http://www.kerndemocrats.com/stories/storyReader$1857?print-friendly=true

"We need to change the way we talk to folks. We can’t keep talking to people talking from our heads. We need to talk to people from our hearts. Seventy percent of people in this country vote from the heart. We don't have to change our core values. I've been to Mississippi. I've been to Tennessee. I've been to Kansas. If you stand up for what you believe, people will respect you. We may not get one single additional vote from those states, but we will never again be demonized the way the President demonized Democrats.

We need to show that we respect folks. The best way to show we respect people in all fifty states is to show up and listen to what they have to say and be understanding. Not that we should ever agree with a violation of civil rights or equal rights under the law for all citizens. Equal rights under the law are a core belief for all Americans and certainly for every Democrat."

I want to talk about moral values for a moment. It is a moral value not to leave more debt to your children than then the debt that you encountered? That is a moral value. We have not seen one Republican President balance the budget of the United States of America in the last 40 years. Borrow and spend, borrow and spend, borrow and spend, we can't trust the Republican Party with our taxpayers' money.

Social Security is a moral value for people who have worked all their life. They deserve to retire with dignity. We ought not to turn our retirement program over to the same people who gave us Enron.

A strong defense of the United States of America would be stronger if we continued to have the high moral ground in foreign policy. If only we were only the admired nation that America was before George Bush took office, we would have a moral foreign policy and that would give us a better ability to defend America. America is not going to be defended simply by having a strong military. We also need to have high moral purpose.

And it is a moral value, as some of our evangelical friends have recently pointed out, to conserve and steward the earth and the environment we were so lucky to have been given. Environmental preservation is a moral value.

It is a moral value not to cheat hard working middle class Americans by telling them that you've given them a tax cut when you raised their property taxes and exercised federal control over their schools. That is a moral value to tell the truth. It is a moral value to be honest in our dealings with others."

[Initech]

7. Wow, only 61% oppose religious intervention?

That number should be way higher! I thought we had "seperation of church and state" for a reason...

[ProudDad]

8. we are rapidly

becomming the Taliban....

[Initech]

9. Ironic, isnt it?

We're turning into the very people we're fighting.