Fundamentalist Progressivism? Hey, Why Not!

[Freshman Noah Baron argues that the progressive path to victory might need to take a detour through your local megachurch...]

This realization came a few years ago, when I looked at the cover of one of the many progressive magazines to which my parents had subscribed–this one was called UTNE. On its cover there was a picture of some random guy I’d neither seen nor heard of, but the title caught my attention, so I opened the magazine and read about a Christian fundamentalist who had consciously (as in not by some freak accident) voted for the Green Party in 2000 (and he’ll have another chance to vote for Nader this year as well).

I was fascinated. Why would a Christian fundamentalist–a man from a group of people known for their rabid opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion, and anything to the left of George Wallace–vote for Ralph Nader, who’s about as electable as this guy?! The surprising answer: he thought that maybe Jesus would care more about things like global warming, or millions of starving children than, say, who’s sexing whom where and with what.

This got me started on a whole new idea for the Democratic Party. If, as the news media reported in 2004, the Democrats had lost the “soccer mom” (who has since morphed into the “security mom”), and, if, as my AP US government teacher claimed, the Democrats lost a lot of working class voters when they began to support abortion, then why don’t the Democrats focus their campaign strategy on issues like the minimum wage and universal healthcare? Surely this would address more substantive concerns than the current GOP platform.

The Democrats did this in 2006, and while their position on same-sex marriage and gay rights might make me red in the face, they did manage to take the House and Senate using that very strategy. That is why I don’t find it all that shockling that Christian fundamentalists are beginning to leave the Republican Party in droves.

Indeed, according to that article, Jimmy Carter (the first “born-again” president of the United States) spoke to a gathering of thousands Southern Baptists and said: “We can disagree on the death penalty, we can disagree on homosexuality, we can disagree on the status of women and still bind our hearts together in a common, united, generous, friendly, loving commitment [to social justice and the environment].”

There’s a take-home message for every progressive out there: you’re not going to convince a Christian fundamentalist to vote for a Democrat by arguing about something on which you both fundamentally disagree — rather, convince them that something else, such as global warming or starving children, is more important. In the end, it’s better to focus on what we have in common than what makes us different. Not because of unity or anything, although that would be nice too. It’s because it’s the only way we–the progressives–can win.