Reply #6: Fiddlesticks! Every good DUer knows that such people are only found [View All]

[QC]

in "red states," which is where all social and political pathologies originate and find their sole existence, while "blue states" are paradaisical places where everyone loves one another and no one ever gets old and every little girl who wants one can have a pony. :-)

Seriously, though, I think you're right that religious fundamentalism is a threat everywhere. Some places that used to be our strongholds are turning Republican--like Wisconsin, where Kerry beat Bush by only 0.38% last election--or have already gone GOP, like Iowa. Major economic or social upheaval tends to make people nostalgic, which makes them prime prey for conservatives, religious and otherwise, and we have some upheaval headed this way. So yeah, I think your fear is legitimate, and dealing with it is going to mean doing some things some of us will find uncomfortable, like actually talking to the religious in an attempt to bring them to our side, rather than just dismissing them as kooks, and returning to our party's historic advocacy of working-class issues so that voters who are vulnerable to GOP/Fundamentalist propaganda might actually have a reason to vote for us.