Of late, former Obama staffer Michael Wear believes the Democratic Party has viewed white Catholics and Evangelicals with apathy, if not scorn. And that’s an outlook it must change in order to move forward in 2017.
Atlantic staff writer Emma Green tapped into Wear’s experience to understand the disturbing “religious illiteracy” that plagues Democrats. While chanting “stronger together,” many Millennials rising in the party ranks have made a concerted effort to brand Evangelicals as “the enemy.”
Michael Wear is a unique animal. He’s a social conservative and an Evangelical, and as if that were not rare enough in Washington’s political landscape, he also played a major role in the Obama administration. As the former director of the President’s faith-outreach initiatives, Wear got an inside look at his party’s treatment of devout Christians. And what he saw rubbed him so wrong, it nearly made him quit.
A recounting of Wear’s personal experiences in the Obama administration revealed the depth of the Democratic disconnect. One instance occurred in 2012, when Evangelical pastor Louie Giglio was invited to give Obama’s inaugural benediction. After word spread about Giglio’s views on homosexuality, activists pressured the preacher to step down from his role.
Such liberal intolerance was one reason Donald Trump beat Clinton in a stunning upset. And when Green highlighted the huge percentage of Evangelicals who voted for the President-elect, Wear commented: “It shows not just ineptitude, but the ignorance of Democrats in not even pretending to give these voters a reason to vote for them.”
Abortion illustrates the point perfectly. 2016-era Democrats have made no attempts to win socially conservative votes on this issue, Wear opined. “The Democratic Party used to welcome people who didn’t support abortion into the party,” he explained. “We are now so far from that, it’s insane.”
What would Wear say to fellow Democrats who don’t see the necessity of reaching out to white Catholics and evangelicals? To put it bluntly, they are ignoring their “duty of living in a pluralistic society.”
“If the civic motivation doesn’t get you,” he continued, “let me make the practical argument: It doesn’t help you win elections if you’re openly disdainful toward the driving force in many Americans’ lives.”
And that is a truth Clinton supporters should understand all too well by this point.
