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GOD: The Democrats cannot seem to make up their mind regarding God and Jerusalem.
By Kate Doak, Staff Writer
Recently the Democratic Party found itself “flip flopping” over whether or not religious themes and values should be included in its platform. While God was not completely removed, the reference to God and religious values were cut down dramatically and the statement that Jerusalem was the capital of Israel was cut out. However, due to an uproar from religious communities—particularly those of Christian faith–these two issues were quickly reinstated by the Democratic National Committee. This was a huge mistake.
The Democratic Party made several statements trying to explain the last-minute decisions. Debbie Wassherman Schultz, Democratic National Committee chairwoman, said that the changes were made “to maintain consistency with the personal views expressed by the President and in the Democratic Party platform in 2008.” But the motive for these changes can be seen much more negatively and can actually be used against the party.
When the Democrats announced the removal of God and Jerusalem from their platform, the Republicans pounced upon them like a lion on a wounded zebra. Even Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, openly a man of faith, said, “I think their having removed purposefully God from their platform suggests a party which is increasingly out of touch with the mainstream of American people.” But their attack did not stop there.
After the reinstatement of the two issues, the Republican Party found even more to criticize. David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network was the first to report the removals. He said that the replacements are even bigger mistakes than the initial removal. “Despite the corrections by the Democrats, the Romney campaign can now argue that the Democrats don’t know what they believe on two very important topics,” Brody said. “Expect the Romney campaign to push this until Election Day. These last-second changes really just make the issue worse and make the Democratic Party look bad.” This problem is not going to go away anytime soon and is making the Democrats look like a bunch of bumbling buffoons. They appear to be conforming to the public whim instead of making a decision and sticking to it, and are being called out on it.
As to the matters of Jerusalem, the denial of the city as capital of Israel was a poor choice to begin with, but the retraction only made matters worse. President Barack Obama originally stated in 2008 that “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided.” This is a comment that Romney also made recently and received a lot of criticism from Palestinians and the Chinese for. But Obama’s stance softened later when he said that “the capital is something that should be determined in final status negotiations between the parties.”This brings up yet another point that can be made by Romney and the Republicans against Obama and the Democrats.
Romney said that it is “unfortunate that the entire Democratic Party has embraced President Obama’s shameful refusal to acknowledge that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital.” He continued by saying that “four years of President Obama’s repeated attempts to create distance between the United States and our cherished ally have led the Democratic Party to remove from their platform an unequivocal acknowledgment of a simple reality. As president, I will restore our relationship with Israel and stand shoulder to shoulder with our close ally.”
Romney is using this decision against Obama and trying to villain-ize the Democratic Party. Regardless of the numerous attempts by the Obama Administration to deny any such claim and give support to the capital status of Jerusalem, the bombs keep dropping. And instead of owning up to the removal, matters were made worse by the sudden switch.
These poor decisions are costing the Democratic Party. The Democrats need to own up to their decisions and stand by them so that, at the very least, it can be said that the Democrats supported themselves. Perhaps this issue is not a death blow, but with the presidency and the future of this country in the balance, why leave it to chance?