Editorial on the news of the Day and Review of the Gridlock around the world.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Politicians Pandering to Religion and Weakening the Constitution at the Same Time

 

After watching a recorded version of Meet the Pressthis afternoon,I wrote a  column on No More Incumbents  about Mitt Romney.  In my opinion, Mitt Romney appears to be one of the most dangerous candidates running for office in either party and a good deal of the potential risks that he brings to politics in the United States was evident in his interview on Meet the Press with Tim Russert.

Over the last few years politics has taken a nasty turntowards the light of embracingthe mixing of church and state within US politics. In my opinion this is extremely dangerousfor the United States.  The founders of our country may have been religious in their personal lives, but they specifically founded the countryto be separate church and state after witnessing first hand the perils of countries that were led by either religious zealots or political leaders that would take advantage of religions and their followers.

I am also extremely troubled byall the politiciansin both parties that have embraced the notion that they have to express themselves in terms of their own personal beliefs and religion. There's not supposed to be a litmus test in politicsrelating to religion, however almost every candidate running for officefor president has purposefully made it a central aspect of their campaigns to come out and state their religious beliefs and how important those religious beliefs are in their politics.  Even those candidates that are simply pandering to this notion and coming out and stating things about religion like a corporate employee embraces a laptop rental program, the candidates probably don't even believe in religion any more than an employee really cares what brand of computer they get at work.   These politicians, like Hillary Clinton affecting the persona of a Southern black minister and Barack Obama doing the same, they  are furthering the conversation and embracing the concept that religion is important in US politics and this has the potential to weaken our Constitution and our country.

To see in depth interviews with each of the Candidates see these netcasts or transcripts on msnbc.

Meet-the-candidates-meet-the-press

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