We don’t usually do an analysis of a newspaper’s editorials on this site, but in this case we have to say: The New York Times got it right on the shamefulness and unprecedented divisiveness of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s decision to cast his lot with those who plan to smear those who oppose President George Bush’s judges as “faithless.”
First, let’s get it straight: we’re not discussing the merits of who Bush wants to appoint. That’s a related but separate issue from the issue at hand.
But readers should know that in private emails, phone calls, and a centrist Internet discussion group, TMV has been struck by the wave of absolute revulsion and alarm expressed by centrist Democrats, libertarian Republicans and independents over something we have not experienced up to this point in American history: an attempt to blatantly use the precious concept of religion as a divisive tool for the transparent purposes of getting political power.
If someone knows another instance like this where the leader of a a major national political party has seized on religion this way — enabled by the President of his party who remains silent as millions of Americans are insulted and dismayed — please email it to us.
Here’s some of what the Times wrote:
Right-wing Christian groups and the Republican politicians they bankroll have done much since the last election to impose their particular religious views on all Americans. But nothing comes close to the shameful declaration of religious war by Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader, over the selection of judges for federal courts.
Senator Frist is to appear on a telecast sponsored by the Family Research Council, which styles itself a religious organization but is really just another Washington lobbying concern. The message is that the Democrats who oppose a tiny handful of President Bush’s judicial nominations are conducting an assault “against people of faith.” By that, Senator Frist and his allies do not mean people of all faiths, only those of their faith.
It is one thing when private groups foment this kind of intolerance. It is another thing entirely when it’s done by the highest-ranking member of the United States Senate, who swore on the Bible to uphold a Constitution that forbids the imposition of religious views on Americans. Unfortunately, Senator Frist and his allies are willing to break down the rules to push through their agenda – in this case, by creating what the senator knows is a false connection between religion and the debate about judges.
The Times then goes into the issue of the filibuster and GOP hopes to get more conservative judges. Then it adds:
We fully understand that a powerful branch of the Republican Party believes that the last election was won on “moral values.” Even if that were true, that’s a far cry from voting for one religion to dominate the entire country. President Bush owes it to Americans to stand up and say so.
We’ve gotten emails saying “How can you call yourself a moderate? You don’t sound moderate on this issue?” The answer: those speaking out and making it clear that they want the America in which they were raised — an America where other religions are respected and religion is not used as a tool to smear and stir up hatred against others — are moderate.
Let’s face it: the Republican party of not just your father but of your BROTHER is now in the process of being hijacked. And that’s why the people who are now being most verbally abused — in politics and those with sites on the Internet — are Republicans, lambasted by the ascendant faction of Republicans and by those who unquestionably follow and echo whatever stand the leaders of their party take.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: if you hear a weird sound tonight it’s probably the sound of Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln rolling over in their graves.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.