Are the national Democrats so characteristically wimpy that they need to be schooled by a young Michigan state senator on how to kick ass? Yeah. Welcome to Mallory McMorrow’s master class.
Social media has already bestowed her instant fame, deservedly so. She awoke Tuesday morning to learn that a Republican demagogue in the state Senate chamber had launched a fundraising pitch by calling her a “groomer” and a defender of pedophiles – the standard performative swill hurled these days at Democrats who stick up for marginalized fellow citizens. But instead of reacting with standard Democratic behavior – curling into a fetal position, whining that such smears are unfair – McMorrow, a self-described white Christian mom, delivered an epic five-minute counterattack that has even prompted curmudgeonly in-house Democratic critic James Carville to say, “I’d show it as an instructional video.”
Key excerpts:
“Growing up, my family was very active in our church. I sang in the choir…My mom taught me at a very young age that Christianity and faith was being part of a community, about recognizing our privilege and blessings and doing what we can of service to others, especially people who are marginalized, targeted, and who had less – often unfairly. I learned that service was far more important than performative nonsense like being seen in the same pew every Sunday or writing ‘Christian’ in your Twitter bio and using that as a shield to target and marginalize already marginalized people…
“So who am I? I am a straight white Christian married suburban mom…I want my daughter to know that she will be supported and loved for whoever she becomes. I want her to be curious, empathetic, and kind. People who are different are not the reason our roads have been in bad shape after decades of disinvestment or that health care costs are too high or that teachers are leaving the profession. I want every child in this state to feel seen, heard, and supported – not marginalized and targeted because they are not straight, white, and Christian. We cannot let hateful people tell you otherwise, to scapegoat and distract from the fact that THEY ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING to fix the real issues that impact people’s lives.
“And I know that hate will only win if people like me stand by and let it happen. So I want to be very clear right now. Call me whatever you want…I know who I am. I know what faith and service means and what it calls for in this moment. We will not let hate win.”
Her powerful words were enhanced by the fervor of her delivery, but what struck me most was her unabashed willingness to link her Christian faith with progressive and humanistic values.
Why more Democrats don’t do that – especially Democrats in the heartland between the coasts – is beyond me. The religious right doesn’t have a monopoly on faith. Right-wing Christians who seek to weaponize their faith on behalf of hateful reactionary policies should not be allowed to run rampant over the mainstream. But somehow, over the last 40 years, as Christian conservatives have risen to power in the GOP, Democrats have steadily ceded invocations of faith to the opposition.
Jimmy Carter, a born-again Christian, briefly interrupted that trend. Believe it or not, so did Bill Clinton, at least for awhile. Clinton was fluent in Southern Baptist cadences; in his 1996 campaign, he even successfully wooed Catholics by condemning TV violence and showing up frequently at parochial schools. But his tryst with Monica Lewinsky canceled the party’s progress on moral values – and gave his veep, Al Gore, a lot of heavy baggage to tote in 2000. In that election, George W. Bush clobbered Gore by a double-digit margin among those voters (42 percent of the electorate) who attended religious services at least once a week.
Despite being plagued by this “God gap,” most Democrats still shied away from stating the obvious – that social-justice Christianity was just as potent as the reactionary version. The epitome of the clueless Democrat was Howard Dean (remember him?), who was briefly the Democratic presidential frontrunner in 2004. When he was asked about his faith during a primary-season debate, he replied that he’d switched from the Episcopal church to the Congregational church in the 1980s because the former wouldn’t give him the land to build a bike path.
Every few years, Democrats try to learn anew that it’s probably a good idea to talk openly about faith and link it to their values. Here’s an excerpt from The Washington Post, in 2006: “As Democrats seek to reframe America’s debate over moral values and close their ‘God gap’ with religious communities, conversations such as these are blowing like a mighty wind through party circles…Rather than cede red states to Republicans, the party is buying airtime on Christian radio stations, with the message that Democrats are indeed a party with deep moral convictions.”
But the party never sustains these efforts, and the results speak for themselves. If only Democrats would listen to someone like Mallory McMorrow – who represents a swing district – perhaps they’d narrow the God gap and remind wary voters that faith can be a force for good.
Indeed, they have a moral duty to do so, because right-wing Christian demagoguery is growing more noxious by the day. As a character in the Woody Allen film Hannah and Her Sisters lamented, nearly 40 years ago, “If Jesus came back and saw what’s going on in His name, He’d never stop throwing up.”