Third Way Dispatch

Mitch McConnell gets it. So does Trent Lott. Lindsey Graham understands. And so does Mel Martinez. These four Republican senators recognize the point that the Wall Street Journal makes persuasively in today’s lead editorial – that Republicans have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to change their brand from one of inattentiveness to minorities to one of openness. The opportunity comes from the bipartisan, comprehensive immigration bill.

No gun bill is perfect and that certainly is the case with H.R. 2640, the McCarthy-Dingell-Boucher compromise. Their bill, to improve the background check system (called NICS) used to approve or deny gun buyers, is the product of a deal struck with the NRA. Trust me when I say that the NRA has never, ever made any piece of legislation better. But the fact is that almost nothing having to do with guns can get through Congress without their approval these days.

Four years ago, Congressman Tom Tiahrt (R-Neanderthal) ambled into an appropriations committee markup with a piece of paper containing legislative language. Tiahrt rose and sought the recognition of the chairman: “I have an amendment at the desk,” the fifth term congressman said. That was to be one of only two intelligible sentences that he would say on that day in that committee.

NOTE: Though my name and picture appears next to this post, I’ve asked my colleague Robert P. Jones, Ph.D., a religion scholar and consultant on our Culture Project, to write this Dispatch. Dr. Jones was principal researcher on The American Values Survey and is currently working on a book on progressive religion entitled Progressive AND Religious: The New Face of Religion in American Public Life (Rowman & Littlefield, forthcoming June 2008). RL

When I hear complaints about the “liberal media”, the additional adjective “secular” is usually a part of the phrase or not far behind. For example, last summer at the so-called “Values Voter Summit” in Washington, DC, speaker after speaker referred to how the “secular liberal media” has neglected religion and distorted coverage of religion and conservative values. A new study by Media Matters, however, documents two key findings that debunk this tired mantra: 1) since 2004, coverage of religion by the media has increased significantly; and 2) this coverage has actually been biased in favor of conservative religious leaders by a factor of nearly 3 to 1.

Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed a bill extending hate crimes protections to people victimized based on their sexuality.

Apparently, the announcement of the bill’s comfortable passage (237-189) was greeted with thunderous applause. I can relate to the joy in that chamber. This is the kind of bill that makes me proud to be an American.

Why is it that when a mass murderer goes on a rampage, one of our first reactions after the grief and shock subsides is that nothing could have been done to stop this indiscriminate killing? We have 47 million Americans without health insurance, yet no one says that we can’t find a way to cover them. Even when a flood – an act of God – levels a city, we feel certain that if the proper steps were taken in advance we could have protected lives and saved billions of dollars in damage. Yet with guns and mass carnage we pronounce ourselves suddenly powerless to do anything.