Attack Me Now and Ask Me to Vote for You in the Morning

I listen to Air America Radio religiously (via WCPT in Chicago) more religiously than I've attended church recently. Love the lineup quite a bit here. Not appreciating how the occasion of naming Sarah Palin seems to have invited a lot of criticism of people of faith. This isn't coming from the candidates themselves but rather media personalities. It comes in referring to "End-Timers," "Creationists," "Pray Away the Gay" folks and other issue-related labels that pit faith against science. I wouldn't personally attend Palin's church, but I listened to a pastor on Ed Schultz from that denomination express political views almost identical to my own.
What happened to Howard Dean's stated goals of bringing in many different groups into the Democratic party? Either a lot of radio and television personalities don't ascribe to those same goals or the goals have been neglected/abandoned. It would seem to me that the major group that the Democratic party is not reaching as it should is the working class. Part of it is they don't feel as though the party shares their values. As a Bible-believing Christian, fairly conservative theologically, I find the positions above not extreme but rather common.
That said, I am nearly 100% in line with the Democratic platform, but I may get there by a different route than fellow party members. Respect that. I came to this position fairly autonomously, but for others to do the same, we may need to open up the dialog and find common ground.
I don't think that I've ever transformed a conservative into a liberal, but when I've had productive discussions with one, it has been by, for one, discussing both philosophies objectively and taking on a specific issue, like privatization. I would imagine there's a lot to be said regarding the economy lately, but that's another post all together.

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