The distinguished gentleman from heaven has the floor...

Story in the NY Times today about how some democratic leaders are advocating that the party make efforts to organize the “religious left.” This is basically an attempt by the democrats, in the wake of a devastating election loss, to “demonstrate a greater friendliness to religious beliefs and even modestly soften its support for abortion rights.”

Oh yeah – that’s great. That’s exactly the type of thing that I want to hear right now. Let’s become more like republicans – that’s the ticket. Let's be more moral by backing off from our morals. That's courageous. Let's run away from gay marriage, despite the fact that it is the right thing to do. We lost by 3 percentage points - cancel Christmas and support discrimination! Fuck abortion rights - there are votes at stake here! As if supporting gay marriage and abortion rights is less 'friendly' towards religion. If that is actually the case (which it most certainly is not), then seriously - religion can go to hell, so to speak. I don't care if democrats lose the next 10 presidential elections. What are convictions worth if they're jettisoned for expediency's sake? Once again - weak, like clock radio speakers. There has to be a point at which beliefs trump political strategy.

Yes - I'm preaching, but I'm utterly annoyed. I'm annoyed that I have to listen to Bush for four more years - and in the prime of my life! Now, on top of that, while it is bad enough that many Americans seem to be equating religious convictions with the republican party, now democrats are trying to legitimize that viewpoint by co-opting it? Just saying something like that and having it reported goes a very long way towards reaffirming the connection between republicans and religion, a connection that is literally nothing more than the unfortunate result of a brilliant public relations ploy. Just 30 or 40 years ago, the democratic party was the party of religion. Since then, the republican party hasn’t changed much in substance (they're still a bunch of dicks), only in emphasis (they're just bigger dicks). If anything, the only significant change has been that democrats have become more like republicans (you get the parenthetical theme here).

Doesn’t that make people with religious convictions sound a little bit fickle? Did god switch sides of the aisle? If so, why? Was he against the Vietnam War? Did he get caught up in the Reagan revolution? Did he get tired of paying so many estate taxes (heaven is quite a bit of property, you know)? Please tell me only Joe Lieberman is behind all this.

Look - I respect people's beliefs, but in the context of politics, I feel like organized religion is on some kind of divine mission to ruin my what's left of my sanity. We are one step away from having our elected representatives claiming that their votes and views are dictated to them by god. We are one step away from hearing a senator announce that his top aides have actually met with god, and that god has approved this piece of legislation. Let’s get god an office in the Russell Senate Building, shall we? Better yet, let’s establish an ambassador to heaven position. We can give the position to Ashcroft - I hear he's looking for work.