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The following is an opinion contribution and reflects the author’s views alone.
“The Democrats’ religion is wokeism”
“The Democrats’ religion is racism, first in favor of the KKK, and now in favor of CRT and The 1619 Project”
“The Democrats are anti-God”
The first two above statements are frequently pushed by the American right and have a lot of truth to them, but the last statement is simply not true.
Due to America’s two-party system and the virtual non-existence of independent politicians, the Republican and Democratic parties are both big tent parties. This has been true for most of their histories. From the 1930s through the 1960s, the Democratic party and its “New Deal Coalition” had overwhelming support from both Jim Crow Southern Democrats and Liberal African Americans, despite both groups hating each other. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the Republican party had overwhelming support from both religious conservatives and neoconservatives, despite both groups having vast disagreements on most issues.
The modern Democratic party is no exception to the big tent rule. Today’s makeup consists of the Progressives, The Establishment-Wing, and the Centrists (American Six-Party System). The most notorious wing of the Democrats, the Progressives (imagine AOC, Cori Bush, and Bernie Sanders), and their positions are well known. They favor excessive federal government spending, have college student and Millenial adherents, and are consumed by identity politics and social justice. The Progressives are also far more likely to identify as irreligious (agnostic or atheist). However, Progressives, despite their vocalness and social media antics, are still a minority within the Democratic party, making up approximately 27% of the Democratic party, 14% of the total American population, and a quarter of the HOR Democratic Caucus, according to an analysis of Democracy Fund’s Voter Survey by the New York Times (Data Set).
The Establishment-Wing makes up half of the Democratic party, over 60% of the HOR Democratic Caucus, and 80% of Senate Democrats. They can be described as moderate to apathetic on social issues and occupy the “middle ground” regarding economic policy amongst both parties. An often underreported example of their views on social issues was when, in mid-2021, a reconciliation amendment (Tuberville-Booker Amendment) on defunding city councils if they defund their police forces was introduced by Senator Tuberville of Alabama, who thought at least some Senate Democrats must support defunding the police and wanted to get them on record. To his surprise, the amendment was approved unanimously (though it can be assumed that won’t be the case in the HOR once the Build Back Better bill is finally voted on there because of the Progressive presence).
The Centrists are an even smaller minority within the Democratic party, consisting of red state and red district Democrats who in most instances agree with the Establishment-Wing on fiscal policy. Still, they agree with paleocons and Republicans on many social issues.
Views on religion follow a similar split within the Democratic party. Among the general population, 24% of all Americans are irreligious, agnostic, or atheist and most of that 24% falls under the ?60% of Progressives that identify as non-religious, agnostic, or atheist. By contrast, virtually all voters and politicians within the Establishment-Wing and Centrist/Moderate-Wing of the party are religious, if not deeply religious. Officially, Senator Sinema of Arizona is the only irreligious member of Congress. However, in practice, many Progressives — whether they be in the House, in various state legislatures, or the DNC — as evidenced by their practices and rhetoric, are also not religious.
In 2016, Progressives heckled a liberal Christian pastor at a rally for Clinton, and in 2019, despite every Democrat within the DNC and in Congressional Leadership supposedly being religious, the party unanimously endorsed a resolution stating that “we enthusiastically support the values of the religiously unaffiliated in America” (Lou Dobbs on Religion in the Democratic Party), admitting that both the irreligious portion of the Democratic party had grown significantly and would soon dominate the party (WAPO on Religion in the Democratic Party).
In some aspects, the 16% of the Democratic party that is irreligious (?60% of Progressives are agnostic, for instance) already dominate the party. They’re much younger than the religious left, meaning they use social media far more often and have activist tendencies, they’ve become increasingly more comfortable with harassing prayers and statements that involve a hint of religious belief. The Establishment-Wing has not done much to counter the influence of its party’s newfound irreligious tendencies. Most who identify as irreligious have also begun increasingly supporting wokeism — the abolishment of religion’s role in any facet of society — almost to the extent that it’s become their new religion.
While the Democrats may not be the “God-Less Party” Republicans claim they are, unless some significant changes are made, they soon will be.
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