Kaine Likely To Expand Faith Offensive As DNC Chair

Barack Obama's decision to tap Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine to be the next Democratic National Committee chairman is a sign that the party will very likely continue and perhaps expand on the unprecedented faith outreach initiatives that Howard Dean launched during his tenure as chair.

Kaine's 2005 run for governor was one of the few statewide races in the year following the Democrats' landslide defeat among so-called values voters, and his bid became a test case for many of the faith-based tactics that have now become commonplace among Democrats.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[diogenes1967]

When Barack Obama was doing community organizing in black churches in and around the Hyde Park area, he and those organizations were very concentrated on issues of economic justice. Black churches is the one institution of the black community that survived desegregation somewhat intact and the one place where people could organize for progressive political action. I get where he is coming from with this.

In part, it may be necessary if the economy gets much worse, these organizations will be in the front lines of providing relief. For example, churches are the distribution points for food, clothing, job banks, etc. I have worked with some of them. They do provide valuable services.

But this massive outreach that is being done to the evangelical community as a whole is a bad idea. I don't believe that Obama is naive about this. I want to know who these organizations are and what their role is. The functions of a black church and a megachurch like roley-poley wanna be bear Rick warren's Saddleback are 2 really different things, there are 2 different contexts. Black and Latino churches, for example, don't do proseltyzing, they simply provide the necessary services. An organization like Warren's proseltyzing, as many white evangelical orgamnizations do. I would rather Obama not flirt with this too much.

[Hirnlego]

A secular world is a sane world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXzladhscMQ

[NotMcCain]

We will miss you greatly, Governor Dean.

[Yermammy]

Say goodbye to the Democratic years. You will have TWO choices with this bozo. Right or Far RIGHT. You're happy kickback and TARP money hard at work buy the Democrats. We need a new party called the REAL DEAL Democrats (no DINO's, mushmouthed centrists, Blue Dogs) that aren't beholding to corporate greed or religious fervor. You couldn't have picked a more disastrous head of the DNC. WOW. We're not only soon to be a bankrupt, highly armed banana republic, but a bible thumping one on top of it. NICE.

[jcwtts1]

Some people are going to have a problem with Kane as DNC chair, he is way more conservative than Dean, he is pro life, if memory serves. There are issues with him if you are a traditional liberal dem. Here is the upside. Obama winning was part of a perfect storm. This storm isn't over however, it can go on for at least another 2 years or as many as 8. For O, the war going badly, the economy going badly, and the realignment of the primary system conspired to make O almost unbeatable. The growing storm is immigration reform, the end of the war in Iraq, and O getting over the very very very low set bar from the Bush admin. The immigration reform doesn't even have to actually pass. Personally I think it will pass, and I believe our latino/a numbers will skyrocket as a result. I think that gives us AZ, NV, NM, CO, and FL and it makes us competitive in Texas. Instead of getting 60 percent we'll get 85%. That gives us an enduring electoral shift. The NE is Dem the South West is dem, the North West is Dem, the mid west is dem. That leaves some southern plains, some northern plains and the south. That is 20-30 senate seats 140 house seats and 15 govs. That is the end of the GOP. A conservative dem like Kane helps us sell the new paradigm.

[jcwtts1]

Kaine whoops.

[Yermammy]

Keep thinking that dribble. Once again, we're reaching across only to get our hand bit off. The rethugs will win this and we're going to help. Correction: YOU are going to help.

[diogenes1967]

Maybe, but notfor this price. In your scenario, this is a subtle Blagojevich pay to play schem on a grand scale. And as a dem, I don't like it. This is not what I voted for.

[gisellestwocents]

BO always pledged to continue supporting community and faith based initiatives...

[kassandrasduplex]

So let's re-cap:
Expanding Faith Based Intiative
Backtraqcks on tax increase pledge for the superrich, now supports more Bush-like tax cuts, as if 8 years of them weren't enough.
Plans expanded war
U.S. troops to stay in Iraq at least through 2010
Publicly supports more coal burning
Appears set to give the insurance industry the health insurance mandates they crave.

So can anyone explain how Obama is the progressive messiah we all were told he was? He looks like Bush Lite. Once again, Americans have been duped.

[jcwtts1]

wow, I think you are wrong on some of this, maybe all of it. First off, the stimulus package will come through, just not on the 20th, and the people you should be angry with are Pelosi and Reid. They could ram it home if they wanted. Second, the tax cuts are for people making under 250,000. Just because you either didn't listen to O or didn't believe him when he spoke doesn't mean he is bush lite. Third 16 months from Jan 20 is 2010. He said 16 months over and over and over again, don't blame us if you can't count. He is on record as saying clean coal should be a goal for the US, not that it exists already. Lets be frank, we are the middle east of coal. We have more coal in the continental US than any country in the world. If we could figure a way to make it burn clean we could change the world. You are crazy on Healthcare, Kennedy is already marking up a bill, he'll have it in the first 30 days. It will be good for us. Truly. Take a deep breath and let him get sworn in.

J

[JohnFromCensornati]

You forgot to mention telecom immunity. He opposes that.

[Dave01]

He opposes it, but voted FOR it!

[Paulied]

WTF!!! Expand faith-based initiatives? Tax-exempt status is not boon enough? Sounds a lot like the special rights they so enjoy accusing other people of looking for to me.

[jcwtts1]

No tax exempt isn't boon enough. It isn't a boon at all. Listen stop the faith based hating... the majority of the country is christian, but if you expand that to all faiths it is like 80 percent or higher. Get over yourself and start thinking like a pol. The GOP is falling apart. It isn't really a party anymore it is three parties falling back into its constituent parts. Half of the christian right isn't really right it is just christian. We can peel those voters off and end the GOP as a party in America.

[Jaybot]

You want to embrace the Cristian nutters? That's no party I want to belong to, try again.

[Beamreach]

To peel off those voters, the Democrats just need to be more Republican-like. What a concept! Change we can continue to dream about.

[diogenes1967]

As a Dem who is not antagonistic toward the idea of faith-based groups or to religion, I am healing way too much about this. I don't want a coalition of black evangelicals, white evangelicals, and social Gospel Catholics because eventually their social issues will be on the agenda and then enacted and then I will continue to be regarded as less than a citizen. My patience with this stuff is thin

[diogenes1967]

hearing, I mean.

I am watching the fiesta Bowl and getting distracted.

[jcwtts1]

I hear you man but I think you are worried for nothing. The black evangelical movement is based, at least in part, in issues of social justice. In that, it differs from the white evangelical and the social gospel Catholics. Further, they would be coming into our tent, not the other way around. In other words the black evangelicals are not fly by night dems. I don't think until this time that we'd won the catholic vote since1964. The dems haven't lost the black vote since 1960. As long as they are joining an established social justice party, a clear separation of church and state party, they are no danger. It is more likely that they will be left leaning independents anyway. The dangers is in the other posters. If they keep attacking the black evangelicals and treating them as if they are just like the white evangelicals there could be a fight in the party that breaks along racial and orientation lines. It is a fight the black community will win. Absolutely win. And at that point, if there is a war, the socially conservative dems like Kane and Webb etc., will team up with the blacks and push the orientation movement out of the party. Much better for everyone if we simply don't fight and work out language that makes orientation issues about social justice, about separation of church and state, about being fair economically and socially to all Americans. That is a argument that will win

[diogenes1967]

As far as I am concerned, the black evangelicals are like the white evangelicals. And I am more familar with black evangelicals.

Yes, they are more engaged with issues of economic justice (fair wages, housing, etc.), a clear priority of mine as a liberal. But I don't want their faux social conservative baggage. I just don't.

[gnomic]

Are the Democrats trying to follow the GOP into the crater? Let the so-called religious nut jobs take over the GOP and run it into the ground, don't invite them into the party and let them take the Dems down too.

WHAT A STUPID IDEA.

[FlamingLibrul]

Just what America needs; more religion in government. We are at the bottom competitively as a nation, while the rest of the world speeds on ahead. We have sacrificed Science in order to appease fundamentalist politicians; we still argue over Global Warming, while most of the world has accepted it as a reality.

Our scientists will not be the ones to find a cure for Diabetes, because their supply of Stem Cells are restricted. Reproductive/health education is a joke, and our economy has collapsed, while trillions of dollars are being spent on two wars- wars that started because Bush W. had a conversation with God. Separation of Church and State has never been more important in the history of America. It looks like the veil is going to keep thinning until it breaks.

[antaeus]

Why can't you just have some faith in Obama's Democratic Party? He's so brilliant that I'm sure there must be a plan here. We just can't see it. Amen.

[Liberal2]

Ahhh, but how foolish you'll feel when MIT researchers learn how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

[FlamingLibrul]

Ha ha, I hadn't thought of it that way... come to think of it, I'm not comforted... I don't want to see the Democratic party go the way of the "Moral Majority" faction of the GOP. We all see where that got us.

[thebigbike]

An awful lot of the "faith-based" activities this last year or so have been offensive to me. so... the dems want to expand that?

[Big0725]

Maybe the Green party can start something. I'm done with the Democrats.

[JulieSA]

Cynthia McKinney 2012!

[Big0725]

I'm getting buyer's remorse and I don't like it.

Kinda feel like I've helped a nice person out of a hole, and when the person gets up top, insteadof asking if there's something he can do for me, he kicks me in the nuts.

Nope, don't like it in the least.

[planetjeffy]

This is how the Dems put a wood stake in what's left of the republic party...but I hate to have to pander to Luddites and the Flat Earth Society.

[antaeus]

How does that metaphor work? Do these people just disappear into a gospel choir? Smile and forget their positions? Or do they come over to the Dems with a specific set of expectations that will change our platform?

This might be more like the importation of Dutch elm disease.

[Big0725]

Thanks. Now Obama is equated to Dutch Elm Disease. Just when I thought I had pulled the plan out of the nosedive.

[ssgman]

No, they start voting Dem. Once it's impressed upon them that the Repub party is the party of Mammon, then they will cross over.