{"id":1883,"date":"2012-09-06T15:47:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-06T15:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/09\/the-democratic-convention-and-the-illusion-of-democracy.html"},"modified":"2012-09-06T15:47:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-06T15:47:00","slug":"the-democratic-convention-and-the-illusion-of-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/09\/the-democratic-convention-and-the-illusion-of-democracy.html","title":{"rendered":"The Democratic Convention and The Illusion of Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

While Democracy and the Democratic Party may sound similar, the party leaders again showed yesterday that one has little to do with the other. President Obama and party leaders wanted the party\u2019s platform changed to include a reference to both Jerusalem being the capital of Israel and God. The omissions however were not accidental and a high number of delegates opposed the change, which had to be agreed to by two-thirds of the delegates. As shown in the video below, in calling for a voice vote, the leadership was shocked when it appeared that more people voted no than yes \u2014 certainly well short of two-thirds in support of the changes. That did not matter. The leadership just declared the vote as having passed by two-thirds acclamation.<\/p>\n

Many wanted to be neutral on the divisive issue of Jerusalem but Obama was worried about the political backlash among Jewish voters. Many others wanted a secular platform and to stand apart from faith-based politics. Obama himself has relied on faith-based politics and policies, as discussed in earlier columns. Obama objected to the removal of the word God and seemed to miss the secular purpose of the move, asking him \u201cWhy on earth would that have been taken out?\u201d It appears that no one had the courage to answer that question by explaining to Obama that it is not necessarily that delegates do not believe in God but were standing against the use of God for political advantage. Instead, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz insisted that \u201cthe platform is being amended to maintain consistency with the personal views expressed by the President and in the Democratic Party platform in 2008.\u201d
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While Democracy and the Democratic Party may sound similar, the party leaders again showed yesterday that one has little to do with the other. President Obama and party leaders wanted the party\u2019s platform changed to include a reference to both Jerusalem being the capital of Israel and God. The omissions however were not accidental and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Democratic Convention and The Illusion of Democracy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"While Democracy and the Democratic Party may sound similar, the party leaders again showed yesterday that one has little to do with the other. President\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/09\/the-democratic-convention-and-the-illusion-of-democracy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Democratic Convention and The Illusion of Democracy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While Democracy and the Democratic Party may sound similar, the party leaders again showed yesterday that one has little to do with the other. 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