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Tuesday, August 03, 2004

Amy Sullivan has always struck me as a reasonable person. I certainly have never thought she might be completely insane until I read the post containing this sentence

"Kerry made the first explicit step any Democratic presidential candidate ever has to open the door of the party to people of faith. "

The Democratic party has been around for a while, and Americans used to be much more explicit about religion. Even rather recently I remember a certain born again baptist named Jimmy Carter who seemed to think there was a place for himself in the Democratic party. More recently still, Al Gore seems to have picked a vice presidential candidate who is notably devout.

I think all Democratic presidential candidates at least since Thomas Jefferson have very explicitly declared their faith and opened the door to people who share it. More recently they have explicitly welcomed Jews too.

I don't know where this crazy idea that religious people are excluded comes from. In the last poll I read on the topic, 80% of Americans said they would not vote for an atheist for president. It is clear that we and not religious people are excluded and no secret is made of that fact.

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