On an open thread just now, somebody said that Dems shouldn't try to court the religious voter, since most of us (Dems? Kossacks?) are not religious, and we should not try to hide it (our putative lack of religious belief).
Since we know that following the election it is being talked about as a major issue---how unsympathetic to religion the Democratic Party is perceived to be by Americans in general, maybe we should start by seeing if this perception is valid or not. The perception may exist. But maybe it's just false, along with all the other false beliefs that the foxwatching crowd tends to harbor.
As I said in response to that poster, I imagine (and it's a guess) that kossacks are more decidedly non-religious than the average Dem voter.
Does anyone have good stats on the religious beliefs or otherwise of Dem voters? If so, maybe you could post them on this diary thread.
Meantime, each of us has our own, no doubt sincerely held, philosophical, moral and religious views. This is not the place to debate whose is better or worse, or true or false. But from a political point of view, it does seem worthwhile assessing how much truth, if any, there is to the view that the Democratic Party is somehow antipathetic to religion, or unaccomodating to religious believers, or that most Dems are. I don't believe that this is true.
But let's start with just the Kossacks, eh?
So take the poll below. Or as some Greek philosopher said, 'Know thyself'.
Update [2004-11-7 14:16:37 by stunster]: Grrrrr. The poll originally had one option which erroneously was stated as 'but not in an Eastern religion'. It should read 'Yes, in an Eastern religion'. I've tried several times to correct it by editing the diary, but whenever I refresh it's still got the original incorrect reading. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. I don't know. Anyway, read the option as 'Yes, in an Eastern religion'.