Chasing the Wind

Peggy Noonan has a great article about how the faith and politics today. It’s too bad she only writes on Thursdays.

The first example she had was when reporters questioned President Bush’s speechwriter, Michael Gerson. The reporters wanted to know when the president refers to his “belief” whether he is speaking in “code” to evangelicals. Mr. Gerson replied that no, “they’re not code words, they’re our culture.” Religious references are not some plot or a secret; they really are a belief system. Really.

My first thought was, You can get so well educated in America that your thoughts become detached from common sense. You can get so complicated in your thinking that the obvious isn’t real to you anymore. I wondered if she didn’t honestly think that it couldn’t just be writing. She thought it was some kind of higher, dark and secret magic. She thought there were secret codes and symbols placed in speeches to communicate secret messages and elicit certain reactions.

Like academics and journalists, the Democrats have been thinking like that, at least in the last election.

In the Kerry camp there was great faith that if only they got what they called “the message” put into something like the American language, their problems would be solved. They tried many messages. They tried going to church and speaking scripture about “faith without acts”; they tried “the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time”; they tried “I’m John Kerry and I’m reporting for duty.” The problem was that none of it seemed fully true to Mr. Kerry, it seemed imposed on Mr. Kerry by people searching for a message. And–most important–it seemed to be just words unconnected to serious policy. And Americans always vote on policy–on high taxes or low, on fighting the war on terror this way or that. Mr. Kerry’s statements didn’t seem dark or magical, they just seemed like something the campaign was trying this week.

As long as the Democrats are thinking the Republicans have learned some sort of secret code words to mobilize people of faith, Republicans will win elections. And if the Democrats eventually learn to believe the words, then they’ll probably end up voting more like Republicans.

The Democrats to turn the slide around by addressing the attacks on Christmas. Conservative lately stand for “freedom of religion,” while liberals stand for “freedom from religion,” a right not granted in the Constitution.

It is this: Stop the war on religious expression in America. Have Terry McAuliffe come forward and announce that the Democratic Party knows that a small group of radicals continue to try to “scrub” such holidays as Christmas from the public square. They do this while citing the Constitution, but the Constitution does not say it is wrong or impolite to say “Merry Christmas” or illegal to have a crèche in the public square. The Constitution says we have freedom of religion, not from religion. Have Terry McAuliffe announce that from here on in the Democratic Party is on the side of those who want religion in the public square, and the Ten Commandments on the courthouse wall for that matter. Then he should put up a big sign that says “Merry Christmas” on the sidewalk in front of the Democratic National Committee Headquarters on South Capitol Street. The Democratic Party should put itself on the side of Christmas, and Hanukkah, and the fact of transcendent faith.

The entire Peggy Noonan article is here and well worth reading.