All ya gotta do, Democrats, to win, is kneel at the cross and kiss the hem of red-faced tent preachers. Is that asking too much?

Yes, it damn well is.

Here's a Wednesday morning quarterback pressing his agenda with a snickering "See, I did it. Didn't hurt too much. Didn't need that soul anyway:"

"Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter got elected because they were comfortable with their faith," said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, a former Clinton aide. "What happened was that a part of the electorate came open to what Clinton and Carter had to say on everything else - health care, the environment, whatever - because they were very comfortable that Clinton and Carter did not disdain the way these people lived their lives, but respected them."

"We need a nominee and a party that is comfortable with faith and values. And if we have one, then all the hard work we've done on Social Security or America's place in the world or college education can be heard. But people aren't going to hear what we say until they know that we don't approach them as Margaret Mead would an anthropological experiment.""

So Rahm Emanuel sez, in essence: "All we (Democrats) have to do is accept the USA as a Theocracy, acknowledge that you must have (an acceptable) faith to be an acceptable representative."

In other words, let's pander the fuck to everyone's short-sighted bigotries, and by the way, let's go back to whuppin slaves and choppin cotton, put up the "No Irish Need Apply" signs ... putting quotas on Jews in colleges, completely ostracize muslims, agnostics, atheists, Hindus, Buddhists and such from the public discourse ...

Maybe we do NOT have the "more perfect union" that is as described in the constitution, but is that any reason to abandon any hope (all ye who enter politics) of ever achieving it?

Lots and lots and lots of excuses and diversion away from looking at total corporate (and that includes churches) control of mind and media and government.

I'm sorry if the pea-brained faction of the American Christian Church feels abused by the smarty-pants Yankees, but it's not as if their being reluctantly dragged into the 20th Century (it's now the 21st) concerning the rights of people of color and people of other faiths and people of gender (women, gays, etc) didn't earn them a great deal of contempt.

When they are willing to burn Pat Robertson in effigy, we might have a bit more respect for them. Until then, the idea of kissing their narrow-minded asses (wow, there's a mixed metaphor!) is anathema. Fuck 'em. And the Sociopathic religious fanatics they ride in on.

The simpering whimpering shit of an evangelical preacher complaining about being abused for his faith sounds a whole lot different to a Jew (such as myself) who ran from Christian kids who held onto rocks and the belief that I killed their token favorite Jew. Or to atheists or agnostics or Hindus or Muslims or Buddhists or Taoists or anyone else who has been on the receiving end of thier "conversion with a rope" attitude.

The sound of a saw cutting wood is lovely -- but it sounds different to a tree.

There must be another option than kissing the asses of the people you'd have to think about pissing on if they were on fire to get elected.

But, oh yeah, that's what politicians do.