I’ve been stewing over this Sarah Palin thing in a number of ways, with friends
male, female, and Alaskan, far-flung family (my sister, in Nigeria
presently, is taking heat for the bumbling
electioneering in the US) and with many, many politicos who just can’t
understand what’s up. I sought greater understanding with this
piece, which argues that Palin was in fact a defensive pick--not in
response to PUMAs and their ilk, but to Christians slipping away from the GOP.
Alan Wolfe has shrewdly
pointed out many elements of Palin’s appeal to evangelicals on this site. But steadily,
and with a barrel of cash and a righteous wind at their backs, Democrats have
been doing the same thing. Despite getting short shrift in this election, the story
of Democratic faith organizing is real. Remember this?
In Denver I had the chance to attend both an inaugural “Faith In Action”
celebration (more tambourines than policy), as well as a serious, results-oriented
“faith caucus” organized by the Obama campaign that went heavy on the social
gospel that animates, among countless others, Rev.
Jeremiah Wright. At said caucus were John Dilulio, Otis Moss, Jr. (who
preached with MLK, and whose son is the current pastor of Trinity
United Church
in Chicago) and
Jim Wallis, the influential progressive evangelical. There, as I report, a
motley crew of believers listened to them and others make a case for the role
of church, not in state but in public life. Rabbi Jack Moline of the Agudas
Achim congregation in Virginia
crystallized their “common ground for common good” message: "It makes no
sense to speak of No Child Left Behind when we ourselves don't know where we're
going," he said.
Obviously Obama has lots of work to do with Christians—namely convincing some
he’s one of them. But there are hundreds and hundreds of boots on the ground
for Obama for America
and for PACs like Matthew 25, canvassing and testifying for the
Democrats (Kerry had a single organizer with a single intern as his faith team
in 2004). This is particularly unsettling, I'd imagine, for a candidate like John McCain who, despite Pat Buchanan's current enthusiasms, has not endeared himself to the religious right in his political career.
As in, it’s crazy to think that McCain really wanted to turn
off independents and moderates with this manifestly unqualified, mega-religious
woman. Rather, he sensed (or should have) a challenge and tried to neutralize it. If
you’re inclined to be charitable toward McCain, this makes more sense than the
dartboard approach that's being reported, and shows that Obama—as with his brazen attempt to
register the 600,000 nonvoting black people in Georgia—is playing offense.
Update: Noam makes the same good point over at the Stump.
--Dayo Olopade