Elizabeth Dole's "Godless" ads: Months later, lessons not learned

[Synnical]

http://www.examiner.com/x-4275-DC-Secularism-Examiner~y2009m3d3-Elizabeth-Doles-Godless-ads-Months-later-lessons-not-learned

When Elizabeth Dole's reelection campaign aired its "Godless" ads in the closing weeks of the 2008 North Carolina senate campaign, ads that attacked challenger (now senator) Kay Hagan for attending a fundraiser at the home of atheist luminaries Wendy Kaminer and Woody Kaplan, it provoked in me a level of indignation I had never experienced. Here, a major political figure (along with the National Republican Senatorial Committee) was asserting that mere association with nonbelievers was sufficient to disqualify a person from holding public office. The Dole campaign issued a little-noticed press release on this months before, but saved the attack on television until the race looked nearly lost for them. Predictably, the Hagan campaign was able to use the ad to their advantage, claim the high ground for having their candidate's faith challenged, and probably fared all the better for it.

But for me as an atheist American, the fact that Liddy Dole was losing ground because of her hateful ad was mainly irrelevant. Thinking I had reached the height of my ire with the ad itself, things would only get worse. First, after Hagan had refuted the ad's implication, that she was herself an atheist (the horror!), she did not do the right thing and say that there is nothing wrong with having friends and supporters who do not share her religious beliefs -- or any at all for that matter. Not unexpected, but disappointing. But then, at a press conference, Hagan said of the atheist organization to which she was alleged to be connected:



. . . I certainly don't support anything they stand for.

Hagan was falling all over herself to repudiate her supporters who happened to be nonbelievers. By Dole's horrible ads ("If godless Americans threw a party in your honor, would you go?" the second ad asks) and Hagan's cowardice in her refusal to defend the citizenship of her own supporters, the charge stood tragically unchallenged: Atheists were not acceptable for respectable Americans to associate with.

Well, change doesn't happen overnight, despite the inclusive tone of the new guy in charge. This month's Politics Magazine features a postmortem on the decision to begin the "Godless" attack by Dole's campaign manager Marty Ryall. The piece is a numbing 2000-word excuse for why the ad didn't cost Dole the election. The deficit with Hagan was too much to make up, Ryall insists, and only something as terrifying as an ad full of nonbelievers would have a chance. Ryall writes:

Nice read at link.

-Cindy in Fort Lauderdale

[rexcat]

1. Ouch...

but it should not surprise anyone that Hagan would be so bigoted. She showed her true side at the end of the election when she defended herself against being an "atheist" in response to Dole's ad.

[Warpy]

2. Yes and no

You really do need to consider where this was taking place: North Carolina. For those of you who have never lived there, it's snake handlers to the west and Baptists over the rest of the state. It's where faith healings are never doubted and tent meetings draw full crowds with deep pockets they are happy to empty completely in the name of Jebus. It's littered with bible schools and bible colleges and yes, these people do know how to hate outsiders, whether they're Yankees or unbelievers.

I don't fault Hagen. She at least included the godless, although she was forced into a position that made it necessary to repudiate them.

Had she behaved this way in relatively godless New England, I'd definitely fault her behavior. However, having lived in NC during my misspent youth and suffered accordingly, I can well understand where it came from.

[rexcat]

3. I have a sister who lives in Western North Carolina...

My late brother lived in the Charlotte area for several years and I have been to the state many times, both for business and pleasure. There are pockets of intelligence and tolerance but they are few and far between. My problem with Hagan at this point is she did not have to say anything after she won the election but she decided to do so and it was despicable.

That said I have lived in SW Ohio for the past 21 years and North Carolina has nothing on this area when it comes to bigotry and hatred for those who don't think like the majority of the local population! This type of attitude is not unique to the South.

[MedleyMisty]

4. Funny - I was born in Mount Airy in 1980 and grew up there

and now live in Charlotte.

I have never met a fundie in real life. The one true believer at my high school was so socially isolated and excluded that I took pity on him and talked to him sometimes - and thus found out that he never got past maybe five or six years old mentally. Generally when religion came up in conversation it was making fun of Christians. Pretty much everyone I know is either atheist or at least open to people having different beliefs - those who identify as Christian are cool with atheists and the one thing that I really admire about my in-laws is their ability to have a very diverse group of friends and to actually discuss politics and religion with those friends.

I am beginning to think that it's a generation gap thing - according to a survey I saw 40% of the people in my generation don't identify with a religion as opposed to just 25% of Boomers.

Also, 75% of the voters 30 and under here in NC voted for Obama.

I will spend the rest of my life here, where I belong. My mother wanted to move back to Oklahoma after Daddy died and I raised holy hell. This is where I belong. This is the bit of land I love. This is home. And I will defend it against regional bigots as long as they post nasty generalizations about it.

Oh, and yes, I was rather upset that Hagan gave in to the idea that you have to be Christian to hold public office. Someone on another forum told me that it was just the way things were in the "Bible Belt".

I sometimes honestly think that I live in a different reality than Baby Boomers.