Blogs For Victory

Which isn’t, strictly speaking, news but it is interesting:

The Democratic Party has been hijacked by elites hostile to religion, said Mark Stricherz, author of the book “Why Democrats are Blue” and a Democrat himself, during the Casey Lecture delivered on Tuesday at the Archdiocese of Denver.

The Casey Series of Lectures was started by the Archdiocese of Denver in 2006 to promote Catholic thinking in political life, inspired by the life and political activism of the late Pennsylvania Governor Robert Casey, a devout Catholic and a Democrat.

Stricherz, who has focused his investigation on the historical transition that turned the Democrats from a Catholic-friendly organization to the pro-abortion rights party it is today, explained the decisive role played in American politics by staunch Catholic Democrats like Gov. Casey, Robert Kennedy and David Lawrence.

“These politicians provided a political leadership and a push for human rights based on religious convictions and personal prayer life, thus becoming promoters of Christian Humanist values,” he said.

Explaining an argument he makes in his book, Stricherz said that the Democratic Party created internal rules that favor Secular elites and limit the participation of common people. He mentioned caucuses in Iowa as an example: they are established to run from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., “preventing the participation of common people like third-shifters, military men and women or young mothers.” As a consequence, “56% of those attending the caucuses are pro- choice folks,” he said.

Thus, Secularism and hostility to religion have become the dividing line between the Democratic Party of the past and today’s Democratic leaders.

Asked about how to change the Democratic Party back to its original connection with average Americans, Stricherz said that is was critical to democratize the internal process, but added that, “I just don’t see the constituency, the drive to bring that change… those with college degrees, who tend to be more secular are in control of the party, whereas more religious, working folks are kept out of the loop.”

Almost hate to say it as, if its done, it will cause my conservatism no end of trouble – what some smart Democrat has to figure out is that if the Democrats would ditch the kook left and allow them to become the Social Democrats (ie, communists) they really are, then the residue of the Democratic party can become the Christian Democrats and make a bid for a socially conservative yet economically liberal political party – and such a party would have a lot of appeal, as a lot of conservative Protestants, and even more conservative Catholics, are ill at ease in the Republican party. Hillary could do this – all she has to do is dump the pro-abortion fanaticism, come out against gay marriage and have at it.

Will anyone do this or will the Democrats continue to slide down into socialism until they are completely rejected? Only time will tell.