Stop the God-groveling, Democrats! Lack of religion is not your real problem

[DonViejo]

Every time Democrats lose, they rediscover the importance of religion. It's a simplistic and disrespectful reaction

HEATHER DIGBY PARTON

THURSDAY, JAN 5, 2017 08:05 AM EST

Postmortems for the 2016 election are ongoing, but the early consensus that Republicans won because they were more attentive to the economic needs of the white working class seems to be holding up. The regions where such people turned out in larger numbers than usual for Donald Trump are also the ones where he took narrow victories in winner-take-all electoral states, so it’s a natural assumption.

Regional disparities in economic data show that while those rural and exurban areas are recovering from the financial crisis, they still have not improved to the extent the more populated metropolitan areas have. Those without college degrees do suffer from the ongoing dislocation of major agribusiness, automation and globalization, which made them excited to support a candidate who promised to reverse all that.

But there’s more to what happened than economics, and I think everyone understands that too. Race played a large role in Donald Trump’s campaign, from his promises to deport Mexican and Muslim immigrants to his emphatic claim of “I am the law and order candidate.” There have been many thoughtful essays written about how the subtext of “Make America Great Again” intersects with the changes brought by the Civil Rights movement. (This by Jamelle Bouie at Slate is highly recommended, explaining why some Obama voters moved to Trump.)

But answers about what to do about all this are not as simple as people think. Obviously a different message delivered by a different messenger might help, but this racial divide is a longstanding challenge for Democrats, going back at least as far as the mid-1960s, when Lyndon Johnson signed the major civil rights and voting rights laws. Paul Krugman of the New York Times pointed this out back in 2015, citing a paper by the economists Alberto Alesina, Edward Glaeser and Bruce Sacerdote entitled “Why Doesn’t the United States Have a European-style Welfare State?”:

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http://www.salon.com/2017/01/05/stop-the-god-groveling-democrats-lack-of-religion-is-not-your-real-problem/

[DetlefK]

1. It's not the economy. It's not religion. It's racism and decades of anti-liberal brainwashing.

He promised to make America great "again". As in "the good old days". As in "when white people got preferential treatment".

Better together? That's code for all people being equal. How am I supposed to get preferential treatment when everybody is equal???

[DLevine]

8. +1

[vi5]

2. Having to address all the other stuff would be too hard...

Much easier to just make the sign of the cross, hold a bible and mention a few things about "the creator". Let's go with that instead. It's safe and won't piss anyone off but hardcore atheists, but hey fuck them am I right? What are they going to do, vote for Republicans anyway?

[MoonRiver]

3. No. It's HACKING and VOTER INTIMIDATION.

[crazycatlady]

5. While I don't doubt your claim

When there's a structural problem when once Democratic voters are turning against them, it is something that is worth looking into. Claiming hacking is ignoring the problem

[MoonRiver]

6. Hillary won the popular vote by almost 3 million votes. nuff said

[Ohioblue22]

4. God-groveling .....

[libtodeath]

7. I dont want to pander to idiots who think a invisible sky daddy created everything 6000 years ago.

That kind of ignorance should not be encouraged but instead to rot away and not treated as sane or normal.

[HeartachesNhangovers]

9. I have to think that those who believe that the

universe is a few thousand years old are a teeny, tiny fraction of "religious" people.

[Grey Lemercier]

11. they do, however, absolutely think "invisible sky daddy created everything"

which is troubling enough

[kairos12]

14. Yep.

[Warren DeMontague]

10. The electorate is getting not just more secular, but more small-l libertarian on personal liberty

Unfortunately we have too many beltway geniuses who are convinced we need to win over "megachurch moms".

Maybe a war on legal weed and internet porn, that'll get us some votes!

[Grey Lemercier]

12. they tried that already, didnt work out well

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511921369

[Warren DeMontague]

13. I know. If only these beltway consultant types would listen to me, instead.

I work cheap, too.

[Grey Lemercier]

15. send in a CV