The South shouldn't base their votes on guns, god, and gays, right, Dean?

wyldwolf

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Thu Dec-25-03 10:40 AM
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The South shouldn't base their votes on guns, god, and gays, right, Dean?

Edited on Thu Dec-25-03 10:59 AM by wyldwolf

Howard Dean, who recently proclaimed the South shouldn't base their votes on god, guns, and gays, has now turned a 180 and is set to complete his trinity of southern pandering.

With an A+ rating from the Republican dominated NRA and being on record that he is opposed to gay civil union rights on a national level, Dean has taken the remaining issue that he said shouldn't be used as a voting bases in the South: Religion.

Dean, who does not often attend church but is said to be a practicing congregationalist, said he expects to increasingly include references to Jesus and God in his speeches as he stumps in the South.

For those who don't know what a congregationalist is, congregationalists consider themselves to be the direct spiritual descendants of the Pilgrims.

So what, you say? Well, congregationalists take pride in the fact that they are not associated with other churches in any type of governing body. In fact, the idea of self-governance is a very big concept for them.

The word "congregationalist" rang a bell with me. Someone I know that works in my company considers himself to be one. I found this out after multiple political discussions with him.

He is a Libertarian, by the way.

So I called him this morning to wish him a merry christmas and ask him about his church. "Is there any official affiliation between congregationalists and the Libertarian party?"

"No, but many Libertarians I know consider themselves congregationalists."

"Why?"

"Self governance..."

He began sounding like Neal Boortz.

"... we consider that very important. The church feels The Mayflower Compact was important to the founding of our church..."

He started on about Church theology. Very evangelical sounding. Fundamentalist.

Is all this a bad thing for Dean? NOT AT ALL - especially if he can be convincing with it. That remains to be seen.

This is politics, after all. GOOD Politics. Dean is obviously very good at his craft. But I don't think many Southern Christians will be convinced.

It may even backfire. Just as the internet has worked for Howard Dean, so it can work against him. People are better informed. And the avalanche of editorials (like this attempt) accusing Dean of pandering will reach the eyes of the south.

And, as it always does, Dean's Libertarian connection does concern me - in his political doctrine and now in his religious affiliation.

Consider this portion from the Boston.com article:

Dean chose Congregationalism -- a denomination, he said, that suits him, because ''there is no centralized -- almost no centralized authority structure -- and I like that.''

Key Libertarian philosophy.

Just like many of his policies.

Dean is sounding more and more like a Libertarian and less and less like a Democrat.

Yeah, I know all about Wesley Clark and republicans and all that.

So address Dean and his Libertarianism.

On a forum where Libertarians have been called "loons" and railed against, is it now OK to walk and talk like Libertarian and a fundamentalist and run as a democrat?

*** edited to remove a portion that claimed Dean is a Libertarian void of proof of his actual affiliation with that party.***