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DailyKos Suddenly Awakens To The Wisdom of...

By Shawn Macomber on 6.24.08 @ 3:12PM

...Southern Baptists, Mormons and...prohibition? Okay, whatever:

The LA Times article notes that 1/3 of Americans abstain from alcohol altogether, and that for many (including members of the Southern Baptist Convention and of course the LDS), that's a religious issue. This ties into the lobbying Cindy McCain's company engages in, because so much of that lobbying has been to keep regulation of beer at the absolute minimum. I know Southern Baptists who, when their town went wet a few years ago, boycotted any store that started selling beer, even if that meant going twice as far for a gallon of milk. Imagine those people's feelings about voting for a man whose eight (or so) houses are paid for by his wife and children marketing caffeinated, fruit-flavored malt liquor to teens. But apparently that's an issue of less interest to the pundits than Barack Obama drinking orange juice rather than coffee.

The author raises an important point. And we haven't even gotten into the conflicted grey areas of how these poor, confused religious voters will make ideological sense out of, say, pro-life candidates who like wine coolers or abortionists who prefer tap water or efforts to better regulate the lite beers served at gay weddings. Pundits, get on this religious issue pronto--we're suspending that whole separation of church and state advocacy thing until you stop talking about Obama's orange juice.

topics:
Barack Obama, Abortion