Super Tuesday looms: Who is really going to win the Presidency? (Part 5) | 75 comments (75 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: And why not? (4.00 / 2)

So you are saying a Jew like Joe Lieberman can't be elected President?

by Mordecai on Wed Jan 30th, 2008 at 08:11:42 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: And why not? (none / 0)

Hasn't been so far, but then they said a Catholic couldn't be elected until JFK broke that barrier. I'm surprised Joe Lieberman didn't run, given his high national profile and centrist almost non-party positioning. Perhaps his private polls were telling him he didn't have a chance in a Democratic primary season where Iraq was such a negative issue...

"It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Wed Jan 30th, 2008 at 08:20:56 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Frank (none / 1)

was only talking about the political chances within the Republican camp in today's context. I don't think he said anything more general than that.

Given today's strong organisation and mobilisation of Christian evangelicals within the Republican party, his point is certainly arguable. It may be noted that these groups are often strongly pro-Israel - although I would not dare comment as to what this means of their position on Jews in US politics, not undertanding their positions well enough in that respect.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Wed Jan 30th, 2008 at 08:46:11 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Frank (none / 0)

I would not dare comment as to what this means of their position on Jews in US politics, not undertanding their positions well enough in that respect.

Well that says a huge amount in and of itself...

_{aspiring to genteel poverty}

by edwin (eeeeeeee222222rrrrreeeeeaaaaadddddd@@@@yyyyaaaaaaa) on Wed Jan 30th, 2008 at 08:49:29 AM EST
[ Parent ]

What does it say? (none / 1)

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Wed Jan 30th, 2008 at 09:09:14 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: What does it say? (none / 1)

It implies that this group may potentially refuse or endorse candidates based on religious belief. You don't have the confidence to say that they vote based on policy. It harkens back to the question of whether an atheist could be president of the United States. It says nothing about Jews in particular though.

_{aspiring to genteel poverty}

by edwin (eeeeeeee222222rrrrreeeeeaaaaadddddd@@@@yyyyaaaaaaa) on Wed Jan 30th, 2008 at 09:35:53 AM EST
[ Parent ]

ah, understood (none / 1)

Well, I didn't feel like I was going out on a limb in saying that this group (Christian evangelicals) care a lot about religion and religion-linked topics (whether that link is artificial or not is yet another issue).

But the distate for atheists seems to run deeper in the US than only with the Evangelicals - not even a Dem atheist might get nominated.

The differences between the US and Europe on religion are very real - and even bigger with France, which has, for historical reasons, a strong secular bent.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Wed Jan 30th, 2008 at 09:56:46 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: ah, understood (none / 1)

The really interesting question is how Evangelicals came to become so pro-Zionist, given their history of anti-Semitism. A lot of this seems to be not for love of Israel or Jews, per se, but because they see the re-establishment of Israel as the fulfilling of a biblical prophesy required before Armageddon and the Second Coming can happen. The evangelical paradigm is not geared to a notion of historical progress, but rather of sinful man seriously screwing up and needing to be rescued from his own folly by divine intervention and providence. The Pope Benedict critique of "modernism" as a peculiarly atheistic conceit that man is the author of his own destiny appears to be similar. I don't know enough about Mormonism to be able to comment on whether it also adopts a similar paradigm.

"It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Wed Jan 30th, 2008 at 10:08:45 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Super Tuesday looms: Who is really going to win the Presidency? (Part 5) | 75 comments (75 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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