STARKVILLE, Miss. —
Republicans pounced on the initial failure of the Democratic National Convention to adopt a platform that made specific mention of God or recognized Jerusalem as the proper and permanent capital of Israel during their convention in Charlotte in much the same way that Democrats pounced on GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan’s public admiration of author Ayn Rand’s philosophies on capitalism and individualism.
The debate rages over whether a separation of church and state should mean a separation of church from the state. The platform fight — clumsily handled — put a bulls-eye on the Democrats
Some GOP conservatives were quick to seize on the DNC platform debacle as evidence of a convention hall full of “Godless” Democrats. Some zealous Democrats labeled Ryan “anti-Christian” because he dared praise an author who has influenced many conservatives and libertarians.
Both of those reactions — however pleasing to the most rapid partisans in both parties — have little to do with reality.
Democrats have struggled to reconcile the issues of separation of church and state, diversity and retail politics for decades. The erosion of Democratic support in the South and Midwest trace in part to those difficulties as evangelical voters quit the party rather than compromise on their individual religious values.
Republicans have struggled as the right wing of their party was increasing populated by libertarians and Tea Party conservatives who increasingly rejected GOP moderates in favor of rising young GOP stars like Ryan whose world view was closer to their own than to the Lowell Weikers and Nelson Rockefellers of the party.
But the suggestions that Democrats are “Godless” or that very conservative Republicans are “anti-Christian” are examples of the astonishing lack of tolerance, civility and common decency that has come to mark modern politics. It’s no longer enough simply to disagree over politics, it seems. In some circles, winning political races have come to include the politics of personal destruction.
Mississippians recently read the moving story of Democratic state Rep. David Baria in Hancock County. Baria’s family lost everything in Hurricane Katrina, then lost a beloved son to illness. In a short period of time, Baria’s suffering was like that of Job. Baria’s a proud Democrat. He is also a man of incredible faith and devotion to his fellow man.
Equally ludicrous is the notion that the most conservative Republicans like Paul Ryan are “anti-Christian.” A look at civic and charitable philanthropies and at individual records of community service by some of Mississippi’s most conservative Republican partisans puts the lie to that claim.
What is lost in such incendiary rhetoric on both sides is that Republican and Democrat alike, we are all Americans. Elections should be spirited and hard fought. The voters deserve a rigorous debate and candidates should fight to support their beliefs and ideals.
Demonizing fellow Americans with whom one disagrees over matters of public policy is a product of the fact that we are as a people mostly safe, secure, free from hunger and not in fear for our lives. In good times, in safe times, Democrats and Republicans go after each other in the most blistering attacks possible.
Only after a national cataclysm like 9-11 do we reach across the political aisle and genuinely embrace those with whom we disagree. It is unfortunate that the old verities of American politics like loyal oppositions, bipartisan compromise and meeting in the middle have become code for personal weakness and partisan disloyalty.
We are all Americans facing an uncertain future and mired in a stagnant, volatile economy. It would seem in our best interests to find a way to pull together rather than pulling ourselves apart. I know how I’m voting, but my allegiance will be with the man the majority of my fellow Americans choose to lead this country — whether I voted for him or not.
(Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at 601-507-8004 or sidsalter@sidsalter.com)
Opinion
The debate is what’s ‘Godless’
- Opinion
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Not your mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal
By Rheta Grimsely Johnson/Syndicated columnist
I haven’t seen the Ladies’ Home Journal in about a million years, except maybe in the dentist’s office when I was trying to avoid a television permanently set on Fox News.
Somebody’s grandchild was selling magazines for a school project, and Ladies’ Home Journal was the only one on the list I recognized. Now it comes to the house.
Let’s just say: It’s not my mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal. This month, right behind a feature called “A Country of People Who Never Stop Eating” is one called “Nice Girls Do Get Tattoos.” -
Health care market needs oversight
By Gene Lyons/Syndicated columnist
Sometimes the best journalism explains what’s right under our noses. In Steven Brill’s exhaustive Time magazine cover article, “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us,” it’s the staggeringly expensive, grotesquely inefficient and inhumane way Americans pay for medical care.
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VA’s appalling failures not recent
By Sid Salter/Syndicated columnist
While recent national press attention to ongoing problems at Mississippi’s G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery Veterans Administration Medical Center in Jackson is welcome and needed, the failures of the overall VA service apparatus in Mississippi are not recent problems.
In short, former U.S. Rep. Sonny Montgomery — Mississippi’s “Mr. Veteran” and author of the modern G.I. Bill that bears his name — must be spinning in his grave. There have been significant failures and poor service to veterans documented by state and local media since 2008. -
Dolley Madison politically savvy
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When Dolley Payne Madison became first lady in 1809, she instituted Wednesday evening gatherings at the White House where political rivals could meet and talk. They were called “squeezes” because so many people showed up and crowded the room. As Cokie wrote in her book “Ladies of Liberty": “All were welcome as long as they were appropriately dressed. And all went — skipping a Wednesday night might mean missing a vital piece of political information or being left out of a crucial deal.”
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Mississippi isn’t immune from national college tuition trends
By Sid Salter/Syndicated columnist
Higher education in Mississippi has not been immune from national trends cited in a recent Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report which concludes that over the last five years, the global economic downturn and a “no new taxes” political climate have increasingly shifted the burden of higher education finance to students and parents at a time when enrollment is increasing and the percentage of state support is decreasing. -
Right to vote not ‘racial entitlement
By Donna Brazile/Syndicated columnist
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Shelby County v. Holder — a challenge to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, specifically Section 5, which requires states and localities with a history of voting discrimination against racial and language minorities to get “pre-approved” by the federal government before changing how elections are conducted or voters are registered. -
1st day of spring brings memories
By Wyatt Emmerich/Southside Sun
The first day of spring! My favorite month, April, is just around the corner. Now we just need one big gullywasher to get rid of the pine pollen.
Normally, spring gives me a strong sense of rebirth and renewal, but this spring I seem surrounded by moments crystallizing the passage of time.
It was a year ago, I walked up the porch to my mother’s home to box up her possessions following her funeral. -
Soaking up in tiger paw-shaped hot tub
By Rheta Grimsely Johnson/Syndicated columnist
No springtime ritual was better at Auburn than sitting on hard rocks at a nearby state park to let cold water rush over your feet. You wore cut-off blue jeans and Dr. Scholl’s sandals, the unofficial uniform for coeds in the 1970s, and when you left, you felt ready to tackle tests, term papers and blind dates.
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Medicaid or not, costs will be paid
By Sid Salter/Syndicated columnist
While the battle continues between state Republicans and other fiscal conservatives intent on focusing on the long-terms costs of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act and Democrats, health care advocates and state hospitals intent on focusing on the short-term benefits, the fact remains that one way or another, the costs of providing health care for the poor, the blind, the aged and the disabled will be paid by the taxpayers one way or another.
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Multiculturalism is not rational
By Thomas Sowell/Syndicated columnist
Among the many irrational ideas about racial and ethnic groups that have polarized societies over the centuries and around the world, few have been more irrational and counterproductive than the current dogmas of multiculturalism.
Intellectuals who imagine that they are helping racial or ethnic groups that lag behind by redefining their lags out of existence with multicultural rhetoric are in fact leading them into a blind alley. - More Opinion Headlines
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