I'm a registered Republican but I fought George Bush tooth and nail and I'm still convinced that he won primarily by being a classic demogogue---that is stoking fear of "the other"-- and especially the completely wrong notion that the US is safer under him than under Kerry. I'm convinced he is a disaster for the US, and possibly the world. It's particularly despicable in the name of freedom he is killing many civilians in Iraq, and that, at the behest of some US firms, he has suspended 2 programs to secure nuclear material in Russia. Then he has the nerve to jawbone others about nuclear proliferation, while refusing to something about it at its source.


Also ,a lot of people, including me, have a big problem with the idea that any one religion has a monopoly on "The Truth". To the degree Bush alleges that Christianity does this--and he does this to a large degree--he and his supporters are dead wrong, and need to be told so over and over. I'm not saying this is you Dewey, but if the shoe fits....

Having said that. I also believe there is a lot of rabid anti-religion sentiment on the Left, and that this is very evident on Mudcat. Many people, possibly burned by their own early personal experiences with organized religion, have distorted the intent of the Founding Fathers, clearly stated in the Constitution. While the evident intent was to avoid a state-sponsored religion,--- with such manifestations as the Test Act,--- as the colonists had experienced in the Church of England, it was by no means the goal to expunge religion from public life. From freedom OF religion, the goal of many on the Left has become freedom FROM religion.

It is absurd, and obviously counter-productive for liberals, as demonstrated in the recent disaster for liberals in the US election, to harp on things like removing the 10 Commandments from courthouses. That sort of thing does nothing but inflame religious bigots on the Right. Such threads as "Is Religion A Form of Mental Illness?" show the suicidal tendencies of the Left. Until liberals can look at religion in general more tolerantly, they are doomed to wander in the political wilderness----since the vast majority of (voting) Americans do not share the Left's view on religion.