Image: Wikipedia
For a while yesterday, I was feeling happy with the Democrats. The news was that they had worded a plank of their platform so as to remove a pointless reference to "God" in the phrase "make the most of their God-given potential". It wasn't much, but it looked like a nod to secularism and religious liberty, to the idea that a significant number of Americans are not believers in the idea that some big daddy in the sky is responsible for assigning us our potential. Some of us believe in a big mommy, some in a committee, and some that our potential is based on a combination of heredity and environment. I was pleased that the Dems had made a small move to acknowledge that we have a secular government that leaves these beliefs up to each individual.
As you might guess, that didn't last long. The God bit went back in, after a voice vote that may well have been fraudulent.
Said former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, in ignorance of American history, "As an ordained United Methodist minister, I am here to attest and affirm that our faith and belief in God is central to the American story and informs the values we've expressed in our party's platform."
Four years ago, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee slapped atheists in the face with an radio attack ad about Sheldon Adelson's ties to "atheist China"; now they've struck the other cheek with this.