Howard "Chameleon" Dean

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode LXXXIII

If you have been paying attention, Faithful Reader, you will have noticed that Howard Dean has said that the election in the South will not... just will not.... absolutely will not be about "race, guns, God, and gays". Now, he is bringing faith — if not exactly God — into the race just about every chance he gets.

See today's WaPo article, for instance.

Howard Dean, after practicing a quiet Christianity throughout his political career, said he is talking more about his faith because the presidential race has awakened him to the importance of religious expression, especially to southerners.

"I am not used to wearing religion on my sleeve and being open about it," the former Vermont governor told reporters aboard his campaign plane late Friday. "I am gradually getting more comfortable to talk about religion in ways I did not talk about it before."

Dean said frequent trips to Bible Belt states such as South Carolina, where evangelical Christianity flourishes often in public ways, are prompting him to more candidly discuss his faith. "It does not make me more religious or less religious than before. It just means I am more comfortable talking about it in different ways," he said.

He cited the Gospels -- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John -- as a strong influence. The Gospels tell the story of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. "As I have gotten older I have thought about what it means to be a Christian and what the role of religion is in my life," Dean said.

Dean's comments about Christianity provide a rare, if obscured, look at the Democrat who is leading in the polls. He has seldom talked about his family, feelings or religion when campaigning, unlike other candidates who discuss such issues to connect with voters on a personal level.

"The campaign has changed the way I am willing to talk about religion. It has not changed my religious beliefs," Dean reiterated Saturday.

In some ways, Dean is coming to acknowledge a reality of American politics: Voters, particularly in the South, want to hear more about faith and morality from national leaders. This phenomenon has hurt Democrats and helped President Bush, according to strategists from both parties. A recent poll showed 63 percent of voters who regularly attend church back Bush, while a similar percentage of those who rarely or never attend lean toward Democrats. A small shift in support of religious voters could provide a big boost to the Democratic nominee.

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), an orthodox Jew, and Al Sharpton, a minister, are the two Democratic presidential candidates who have given their faith and God a role in their campaign rhetoric. Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark recently said faith will become a centerpiece of his campaign message, too. Dean is still wrestling with how prominent a place faith should take in his campaign. The more he talks about it, though, the more comfortable he feels, an aide said.

"I am still learning a lot about faith and the South and how important it is," said Dean, a Congregationalist. The Congregationalist Church is a Christian denomination that preaches a personal relationship with God without a strong hierarchal structure guiding it. Dean was reared an Episcopalian, but left the church 25 years ago in a dispute with a local Vermont church over efforts to build a bike path. Dean's wife is Jewish, as are their two children.

"Faith is important in a lot of places, but it is really important in the South -- I think I did not understand fully how comfortably religion fits in with daily life -- for both black and white populations in the South," he said. Dean has visited South Carolina, which holds its presidential primary Feb. 3, nine times since the beginning of the campaign. "The people there are pretty openly religious, and it plays an ingrained role in people's daily lives," he said.

Dean's decision reflects the evolution of a candidate who earlier in the campaign said it was the New England tradition to practice religion quietly. Still, Dean's remarks about his faith have been mostly confined to discussions with reporters and campaign stops at African American churches in South Carolina. At the same time, he tells Democratic audiences to move elections away from "guns, God and gays."

"What I have not done is figured out is how to talk about [my faith] publicly," he said.

The Democratic front-runner probably will not have much time to elaborate until the presidential race heads South on Feb. 3, an aide said Saturday. But if he wins the nomination, polls show voters want to hear more about faith from political leaders. The general election campaign is when Dean might open up more, the aide said.

The last two Democrats to win the White House -- Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter -- evoked God and their faith. Both are Christians. Some Democrats have said that Dean may be perceived as too secular because of his affiliation with civil unions for gays, which many Christians oppose.

President Bush, a born-again Christian, is one of the most openly religious presidents in generations and enjoys very strong backing in the South, according to recent polls. In 2000, he won every state in the Bible Belt. It would be tough, though not impossible, for a Democrat to defeat Bush without making inroads in the South, strategists from both parties say.

Dean said he prays daily and has read the Bible from cover to cover. "If there was one experience that deepened my religious faith," Dean said Saturday, "it was the capture of my brother [in Laos] almost 30 years ago."

He rarely attends church services, unless it is for a political event. When he talks about Jesus, he usually focuses on Christianity's teachings about helping the poor and less fortunate.

When asked Friday night about his favorite book of the New Testament, he cited Job, about a righteous man whose faith was tested mightily by God through great suffering. After thinking about the scripture, Dean pointed out an hour later that Job is from the Old Testament. Dean said Job reinforces the uncomfortable fact of life that "terrible things can happen to very good people for no good reason."

"I think all human beings have to have an explanation for why bad things happen to good people," which resonates with him, in part, because the suffering he witnessed as a medical doctor, Dean said.

At a breakfast here Saturday, Dean had an opportunity to discuss his faith when an Iowan asked what sustains the front-runner when his rivals are relentlessly criticizing him. Instead, Dean shared a secular belief in the power of people to change government.

A few minutes later, when discussing corporate greed, Dean promised if elected president to call business leaders from around the country into the White House to stress ethics and responsibility. "Moral tone is a huge deal in the presidency," he told the audience.

© 2004 The Washington Post Company

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If you have been paying attention, Faithful Reader, you will also remember that Dean thinks one of his strong points is that he is willing to tell people what they don't want to hear and isn't willing to do or say anything just to get elected. Strange, then, how he spent most of December insulting every inhabitant south of the Mason-Dixon Line, and is now willing to talk about things he didn't use to talk about because he wants every inhabitant south of the Mason-Dixon Line to vote for him.

Personally, I think this is a great plan: first, Dean wants to get "race, guns, God, and gays" out of the race, then he himself brings at least some of them back in, while showing how committed he is to Christianity by thinking an Old Testament book is a New Testament book. And talking about have switched from Episcopalian to Congregationalist over a... bike path. What an absolutely brilliant calculation to appeal to the southern voter!

Yep. That Karl Rove is a genius.

I am wondering how much vitriolic outrage this new-found talking-about-faith angle will produce amongst his supporters, fellow Democratic politicians, and the mainstream media. Very little, if any, I should think. Why? I think there are at least two reasons: (1) they know Dean is a bald hypocrite pandering for votes and no matter how much he talks religion it really means nothing to him (that is, Bill Clinton is his religion role-model) and/or (2) it's okay because it's "left-wing" religion, which is really social-work dressed up in preacher's garb, rather than "right-wing" religion which, as everybody knows, is really about hating women, homosexuals, immigrants, and the poor.

This WaPo article doesn't make Dean look very good, does it?

(Thanks, Diogenes.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sun. 01/04/04 01:36:30 PM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode & Political.