It all started on Wednesday, when DNC chairman Howard Dean did an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network. He appeared on Pat Robertson's show, The 700 Club, as part of his outreach to court conservative Christians.
As usual, Dean put his foot in his mouth.
CBN.com – (CBN News) -- Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean told CBN News that his party has a lot in common with the evangelical community.
...Dean said that "one of the misconceptions about the Democratic Party is that we're godless and that we don't have any values."
...He said, "I'm a Democrat because of my values. My values include inclusiveness -- they include not leaving more debt to our kids than we have ourselves. My values include wanting our values to drive our public policies. My values include not having kids going to bed hungry at night. Now those are values that I bet I share with the vast majority of evangelicals."
That's rather condescending.
Evangelicals certainly know that not all Dems are godless. Furthermore, it's not that Dems don't have any values. It's more that Dems have different values.
Sure, there's some common ground, but there's a lot of opposing beliefs.
CBNNews asked Dean about other values that the evangelicals speak out a lot about, such as abortion and also gay marriage, and how he can reach them when Democrats don’t necessarily share those same positions.
"Well, let's discuss abortion first," Dean said. "I think what we have in common with the evangelical community is that we ought to have a lot fewer abortions than we do. The abortions have actually gone up in the last few years. We should have far fewer abortions…we ought to make sure that there's not just abstinence, but family planning used to get rid of abortion, and that is something that we share. Now the difference is that we don't think making criminals out of doctors and women is a good idea."
Dean has his statistics wrong, but that aside, I believe that some Dems wish there were fewer abortions. However, that tiny bit of common ground hardly seems enough to compensate for the many major obstacles that stand between the Dems and religious conservatives.
Dem support of partial-birth abortion is a huge problem. In addition, the Democrats' efforts to uphold abortion on demand and to prevent parental notification, their blocking of conservative judicial nominees, and their kowtowing to NARAL and NOW are all problems that a simple visit from Dr. Dean won't cure.
He added, "The Democratic Party platform from 2004 says that marriage is between a man and a woman. That's what it says. I think where we may take exception with some religious leaders is that we believe in inclusion, that everybody deserves to live with dignity and respect, and that equal rights under the law are important."
Oops! Dr. Dean doesn't know his party's platform!
Call me crazy, but I think it would be a good idea for the party's chairman to be familiar with that.
"I'm not saying we're going to agree with everything, between the more conservative evangelicals and the Democrats, but there's a lot more common ground than most people realize, and we're willing to work with the evangelical community," Dean said.
The Dems obviously are not willing to work too hard.
Dr. Dean's visit with the evangelicals turned out to be a disaster.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic chairman Howard Dean mischaracterized his party's platform on gay rights in an interview courting evangelicals, then set the record straight Thursday when an advocacy group called him on it.
Dean told Christian Broadcasting Network News that the 2004 Democratic platform declares "marriage is between a man and a woman" _ just one of the points he made in reaching out to religious conservatives who are largely hostile to the party.
"Hostile to the party"?
That's an odd, but telling, choice of words. It's a very negative depiction of religious conservatives, citing them as hostile as opposed to being in disagreement with the Democrats.
It's an emotional characterization rather than a rational one. According to AP, the religious conservatives don't have legitimate, reasoned differences with the Dems. They have rage.
But the platform does not define marriage that way, and his remarks prompted the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to return a $5,000 donation from the Democratic National Committee.
Dean later acknowledged his misstatement, but the group sent back the money anyway. "We need for Governor Dean to demonstrate real leadership on our issues," executive director Matt Foreman said in an interview, "not to equivocate depending on the audience."
Wow. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is really holding Dean's feet to the fire.
Clearly, the group will not allow the Democratic Party to make any concessions regarding where it stands on marriage. It's their way or the highway.
...With Republicans embracing the traditional definition of marriage Democrats sought to appeal to such traditionalists without giving up their support for gay rights.
The result: a platform plank that left the central question about what defines marriage to the states, and specifically rejected President Bush's support for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
It asserted: "We support full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and seek equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for these families."
Dean stated in the interview: "The Democratic Party platform from 2004 says that marriage is between a man and a woman. That's what it says."
What was Dean thinking?
Was he intentionally misleading?
It's hard to believe that he would err on such a definitive statement.
Is he a liar? Is he stupid?
Either way, it's bad.
...After the gay rights group went public with its complaints about his remarks, Dean acknowledged: "I misstated the Democratic Party's platform, which does not say marriage should be limited to a man and a woman," and reasserted the party's commitment to equal protection for all.
So, after reaching out to religious conservatives, Dean had to backtrack big time.
In the end, he succeeded in angering the gay and lesbian demographic and alienating the religious conservative group at the same time.
One thing that Dr. Dean has accomplished in the last two days is to clarify the Democratic Party's position on gay marriage.
Dems believe that marriage should NOT be limited to a man and a woman.
That is now perfectly clear. Thank you, Dr. Dean.
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