The Democrats Who Stole Christmas

FoxNews anchor John Gibson has a new book which is sure to create much anger on the left - The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought. Of course, the thing that's really going to get the goat of the mainstream media is the fact that most of the folks bringing the anti-Christmas legal actions are Democrats. Don't look for Gibson on any of the major morning shows.

This book comes out at the same time as a report which says that the current political divisions in the country have neatly divided the religious from the secular:

The Republicans have had a bad few weeks. However, the Democrats have had a rough decade. A preacher who visited New York last week provides part of the answer.

Yes, top GOPers in Washington are in deep trouble, even as the White House braces for the negative impact of the 2,000th American fatality in Iraq. So that's one way of assessing the political situation.

But there's another way, which asks, Which party better shares the bedrock values of most Americans? That's a happier question for Republicans.

A new paper by Democratic thinkers William Galston and Elaine Kamarck, "The Politics of Polarization," argues that over the past three decades a "great sorting out" has occurred, leaving conservatives and religious believers mostly in the Republican Party, liberals and seculars mostly in the Democratic Party.

The problem for Democrats is that self-described conservatives outnumber self-described liberals 34-21. Furthermore, Galston and Kamarck - veterans of the Clinton White House - contend many moderates incline toward conservatism on social issues such as abortion, gay marriage and the public display of religion. A Pew Center poll asked, for example, if it was proper to display the Ten Commandments in a government building; 72 percent of Americans said "proper," 22 percent "improper."

As Galston and Kamarck observe, religion and the social-issue controversies it raises have been "the overriding factor" in the realignment of the parties - or, to put it more bluntly, the shrinkage of the Democratic Party. The authors regret this shrinking but don't see a reversal so long as their party is seen as anti-religious.

But is it unfair to say that Democrats are anti-faith? Maybe. Yet in politics, perception is reality. So, for as long as just 29 percent of Americans see the Democrats as friendly to religion, compared to 55 percent who see Republicans as religion-friendly, the authors see only bad news for donkeys.

Since many of the anti-Christmas initiatives of the left are also seen by many people as anti-American values, these crusades against the creche scenes and Christmas carols will only further damage the Dems.