Re: Election

I have no doubt about the importance of people like me (a "white evangelical
Christian") in the election yesterday. I was also interested in the
comments of a black official (I don't recall his name), speaking on one of
the TV networks about the Florida results. He noted that there, the
decisive factor was probably the Jewish vote. Apparently far more Jews
voted for Bush than people had expected, given the fact that a very large
majority of Jewish voters are Democrats. Bush's very clear support for
Israel was said to be the reason. I believe this analysis; I've been
wondering for months whether that might happen.

Another commentator (I can't recall which one) pointed out that Bush is
highly unpopular in Europe, partly b/c he is so openly religious. I also
believe this analysis. Furthermore, I suspect that many European
governments have opposed Bush's policy in the Middle East, in good part b/c
of the Jewish issue. Let me be more specific. In many European nations,
there are significant numbers of recent immigrants from Islamic countries.
In the UK, I'm told, there might be more Muslims today than there are
*active* Christians, and surely there are far more Muslims in the UK than
there are Jews. I do not know the real numbers for any nation, but I'd be
surprised if there are more Jews than Muslims in *any* of the larger
European nations at this point. Lots of European Jews who survived the
holocaust didn't want to stay in Europe, while lots of Muslims (some from
former colonies like Algeria or Morroco) have moved into Europe in the past
40 years. This *has to* have a noticable effect on politics there.

On the other hand, something like half of all Arabic Americans are
Christians, not Muslims. (Many of those folks fled religious persecution in
places like Syria, Iraq, or Egypt.) Again I don't know the precise numbers,
but I'd be surprised if there are more Muslims than Jews in the US. More
importantly, American Jews have a great deal of political influence,
relative to American Muslims; Jews have been an important part of our
democracy for over a hundred years, but esp important since WW2. Although
Joe Lieberman is (I think) the first Jewish candidate for Pres or VP for a
major party, there have obviously been many Jewish Senators and governors;
we re-elected a Jewish senator to his fifth term in my home state yesterday
(Arlen Spector). American Muslims have a long way to go to yet.

A few weeks ago, the very liberal political magazine, the Nation, ran a
cover story about evangelicals and the secular political left in America.
It was right on target, IMO. Partly we are a divided nation b/c of the real
contempt (not just disinterest) that many left-leaning thinkers have for
those of us who take religion seriously, esp those of us who sometimes vote
in certain ways partly b/c of our religious beliefs. To be sure, there are
plenty of poltical conservatives who aren't religious, even some who are
outright atheists (the strongest defender of Richard Nixon I have ever
spoken to, was an atheistic Jew who taught history of science at an Ivy
League school for several decades). But they usually aren't seen (rightly,
I think) as the "brain trust" of the political right. The major secular
universities are not exactly known as hotbeds of religion, nor are they
known for encouraging conservative political viewpoints. And a large
majority of those universities are located in the "blue" states, incl the
ones in the upper midwest as well as those on the coasts.

In closing, let me clarify the intent of my comments here. I don't like to
get into politics in an openly partisan way, I vote and don't usually talk
about how I voted. My intention here is to comment on the election with
regard to the role that religion apparently played, to be objective rather
than partisan. I think that many commentators on both sides of the aisle
would agree with my comments. I am not trying to start a thread about which
candidate Christians should have voted for, and for what reasons. I am
simply pointing to what look like the facts and inviting the analyses of
others.

I also hope that the few Europeans on this list will comment on my
comments. Do you think I'm on target, or not, relative to the differences
between Europe and the USA that I have identified?

ted
Received on Wed Nov 3 09:13:19 2004