The Real Story

A nice passage from Hugh Hewitt:

What utter nonsense, this idea of American Republicans divided into two camps based upon religious certainty. Does Sullivan even believe this? The vast, vast majority of Americans, of both parties, are common-sense folk, who don't much like taxes or governemtn bureaucrats or judges deciding that all of a sudden two men can get married. They believe in killing terrorists before they kill us, get teary-eyed when they see troops leaving or coming home, and would never think of imposing their religious beliefs on their neighbor or a stranger.

They wish primarily to be left alone, and the overwhelming thrust of most organized religion in American history is to keep government far away from the church's door.

But neither will religious people put up with the second-class status the left is demanding they accept, a status that says they must not ever mention their faith in the course of their conversations about politics, or their view of what constitutes sin. They don't like planning commissions telling them their churches are too big and their traffic jams too inconvenient, and they think a tax credit for the cost of parochial education would be very nice given the collapse of public education in some cities, and they get really ticked off when Democratic Senators brand as "outside of the mainstream" judicial nominees who believe the same things they believe.

They think of themselves as ordinary, normal Americans, and they have had it with being lectured to about how intolerant they are, how they are the "American Taliban." They voted overwhelmingly for George W. Bush. They like the new pope. They think James Dobson has done a lot of good over the years and think it is sick and hateful to brand him the Ayatollah bin Dobson.

And if they had ever heard of Andrew Sullivan and had read this particular article, they would think him very silly indeed. And invite him to their next potluck.