By David Gushee
The last two weeks of a presidential-election campaign are not likely to mark a high point in rationality and love. But still, one cannot help but be deeply disturbed by the dark divisions that descend on this nation every four years. No wonder we can’t actually solve any of our problems. We’re too busy hating each other.
In this election there are abundant signs of a strange and dispiriting paranoia. I would like to be able to say that the paranoia runs equally strong both ways, but in this case it seems more one-sided.
I get all kinds of communications suggesting that millions of Americans believe that Barack Obama poses a mortal threat to America. They further believe that anyone who could support him is morally deficient or worse. I don’t really see those kinds of e-mails in relation to John McCain. Many millions don’t prefer him as president. But they don’t think he’s the Antichrist.
Some of the rhetoric has at least points of continuity with that of previous campaigns and some contact with real policy issues. When Sen. McCain or others call Sen. Obama a “socialist,” they reflect a long-standing debate over the progressivity of the federal tax code. It’s harsh rhetoric, but at least it reflects a standard policy debate between Republicans and Democrats.
Rhetoric suggesting that Obama is weak or naïve because he’s expressed a preference for engaging in diplomacy with enemy regimes is also par for the course. This is but the latest incarnation of a long-standing and often-effective strategy in which Republicans try to position themselves as tougher on defense and better able to defend the nation than Democrats.
The most anguished policy-related emails I have received have to do with claims that Obama is not only for abortion, but also for infanticide. Again, the argument about abortion policy is a long-standing one. In this case, Obama does indeed have a very liberal voting record on abortion. It is a major objection to his candidacy. But he is not in favor of infanticide. His votes on the particular bills that have attracted such charges, as http://www.factcheck.org/ has shown, were aimed at protecting abortion rights from legislative moves that he and others feared might undermine such rights.
Let’s grant that attacks on Obama’s positions on taxation, negotiations, and abortion are fair game in a political campaign. What’s not fair game is what some have called the “othering” of Obama. By this is meant the effort to position Obama as a strange alien outsider who is “other” to the rest of America.
It’s an othering strategy when critics persist in calling him “Barack Hussein Obama.” Or when they say he “pals around with terrorists.” Or that he hates America because he went to Jeremiah Wright’s church. Or that he’s a closet Muslim or an Arab in a terrorist sleeper cell. This escalating rhetoric is rubbing salt into our nation’s cultural and racial wounds. It is also leading to early signs that the legitimacy of Obama’s election will be challenged if he wins.
Already the groundwork is being laid for conspiracy theories. There is already the theory that Obama is supported by the “liberal media elite,” which is essentially conspiring to engineer his election. This is taken as an article of faith by many. But incipient conspiracy theories gained more powerful fuel with the news of irregularities in ACORN’s voter registrations. If Obama wins, and especially if it is close, many will claim that the election was rigged or stolen. And, once again, we may descend into the abyss of a president whose legitimacy is not accepted by a high percentage of those who did not vote for him. No matter whom one supports for president, surely no one can desire such an outcome. It would be disastrous for our nation to have another presidency whose very legitimacy is disputed. We cannot bear it.
Where are evangelical Christians in all of this? To the extent that evangelicals have bought into the anger, hysteria and othering of Obama, we have once again proven to be a source of cultural conflict and division rather than agents of reconciliation, as all Christians are called to be.
I fear that the Christian right will find in Obama, if he is elected, a useful target for their fund-raising appeals and constituent mobilization. However, they will be speaking to a dwindling number of Americans, as polls of younger evangelicals clearly reveal their movement away from the vision and agenda of the right.
These polls support my thesis that there is an emerging evangelical center, which has a broad moral agenda that includes — but is not exhausted by — abortion. My guess is that exit polls will show that Obama has made only partial inroads into this evangelical center, because of his voting record on abortion. Future Democratic candidates whose voting records are more moderately pro-choice or pro-life will do much better with centrist evangelicals. Black evangelicals will support Obama overwhelmingly, and recently released polling shows that Hispanic evangelicals are swinging toward Obama and the Democrats in a decisive way. This has significant implications for the future religious and political alignment of our nation.
My plea to all Christians is to remember who we are and whose we are. Jesus is our Lord. We are not free to engage politics in a way that violates his Lordship. This Lordship is interpreted differently by different Christians in terms of who they vote for. But on issues like civility, respect and truthfulness, our calling is more than clear.