Friday, September 07, 2012

God and Jerusalem and Party Platforms

A regular reader asked me what I thought about the brouhaha surrounding the Democratic Party re-inserting God and Jerusalem into the party platform. In short, it was politics at its silliest.

First, God. As Amy Sullivan points out, there was plenty of religiosity in the Democratic platform already and perhaps more than in 2008. As a firm believer in the separation of church and state, there was already too much of a Judeo-Christian God in the Democratic platform. Hindus and Buddhists are just as American as Christians and Jews. Ultimately, I don't care that much though. And the allegation that delegates were booing God is bogus. They were booing the party leaders forcing a change in the platform via voice vote. In fairness, Ron Paul supporters did the same thing at the RNC and were likely not booing Puerto Rico. If you believe this is a Christian nation where religious minorities are tolerated, but not real Americans, maybe the Democratic Party is not for you. But there is no reason to think that the party is a group of godless commmies.

Second, Jerusalem. Oy and vey. Every year, every party, all nonsense. Both parties platforms support moving the U.S. Embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Presidents of both parties don't actually do it. Why? Because it is not worth it. Yes, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, but it is not worth getting every single Arab government violently angry at us by moving the Embassy there. Jeff Goldberg explains. For the same reason, the U.S. Government does not explicitly recognize the Armenian Genocide carried out by the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It happened. Everyone knows it happened. Turkey likes to pretend it did not happen. Turkey is an important ally on a whole range of issues. So the government does not make any loud proclamations about it.

God and Jerusalem. Both represent identity politics at their silliest. Neither will have any effect after this weekend.

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