Posted 8:19 AM by Gene

Conservatives are making a lot of a LALATimes poll indicating that over a third of liberal Democrats wouldn't vote for an evangelical Christian. We're surprised a Stale.com or TNR hasn't issued a typically cute defense with its trademark glibness, to wit: liberal Democrats are the most tolerant people in the universe's history, but that won't prevent them from standing up to bigots, as Dr. King did; and the Naz -- indefensible behavior of evangelicals (anti-abortion, anti-gay-marriage, etc.), though it is steeped in religious tradition, is inherently a POLITICAL thing, so we liberals can hate evangelical Christians for their INTOLERANCE.

Some of this unease toward evangelicals is understandable; many liberals are Jews, and they look with proper suspicion at the Falwell-Robertson axis, which speaks of Israel with a certain icky condescension and has never stopped making noises about conversions. Many liberals, however, are not Jews, and so we must view this statistic as yet another expression of the preening superiority of academics, newspaper scribblers and show-biz types, who ARE liberal. The irony is many liberals have come to hate Jews, and we doubt that the Republic has seen such open espousal of Jew-hatred since the days of "Father" Coughlin and America First. I guess it depends on which foot the religious intolerance is on.