(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . J. Rubin: Make Elected Officials Choose The Constitution or the Bible [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-11-09 Jay Ashcroft is currently Missouri’s attorney general and wants to be its governor. He’s also ardently anti-abortion rights, and is fighting — and losing — battles in the Missouri courts over the language used to describe to abortion ballot measures. So reporters asked Ashcroft whether he could, as governor, defend abortion rights if voters do put it into the state constitution. He gave an interesting response: GOP candidate for Missouri governor implies he’d ‘have to quit’ if voters pass abortion rights “Anytime a statewide official is sworn in, we swear an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and of the state of Missouri,” Ashcroft replied. “If I cannot do that, then I would have to leave my position. I cannot swear an oath and then refuse to do what I’d said I would do.” Reporters followed up, asking whether Ashcroft meant that he would resign or decline to take the oath of office if the initiative on abortion rights is approved on the 2024 ballot. “We’re getting into real hypotheticals,” Ashcroft said. “What I’ve told you is that I would do what I said I would do. When I take an oath, I will follow it, and if it is incompatible with my moral beliefs, then I would have to quit.” Jennifer Rubin has seized on that answer (which, let us note since she didn’t, isn’t quite a firm commitment to resign, though it comes close): Resign if you cannot follow the Constitution? Great idea. She compares Ashcroft’s response to that the new Speaker (can we call him Sneaker?) Mike Johnson when asked a similar question: New House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), for example, said in a Fox News interview: “‘What does Mike Johnson think about any issue under the sun?’ I said, well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it — that’s my worldview. That’s what I believe, and so I make no apologies for it.” By this time next year, Missouri’s constitution may well have abortion protections enshrined. The federal Constitution already prohibits using the Bible — or any other religious document — as the basis of government: Johnson swore an oath to a Constitution that includes a First Amendment that prohibits the establishment of religion. The Constitution bans slavery and cruel and unusual punishment; the Bible condones slavery and stoning, among other things. Which is his rule book: the Constitution or the Bible? He should tell us. Side note: Jay Ashcroft is the son of George H.W. Bush’s attorney general John Ashcroft. John once memorably refused — from his hospital bed — to reauthorize a domestic surveillance program because it wasn’t legal. He committed plenty of other sins against our democracy, let us be clear. The point is that there is a family history of occasionally doing the right thing. Rubin’s comparison of Ashcroft to Johnson led her to a couple of other famous examples of politicians making it clear they separated their religion from their office: There are two ways to resolve the issue. Ashcroft presents one: Resign if you cannot put your religious views aside. The other is to admit that you must put those views aside to hold public office. When the issue is not evangelical Christianity, but rather John F. Kennedy’s Catholicism or Mitt Romney’s Mormonism, politicians have taken pains to assure voters that their religion would not dictate their actions in office. We should expect no less of today’s elected officials, including Johnson. [emphasis added] The percentage of Catholic Americans has declined since Kennedy’s day, but as of 2014 they still accounted for one-fifth of the US adult population, which still makes them the largest single religious group in the US. (There are more Protestants overall, and possibly more evangelicals, but they are split into many separate groups.) And according to at least one 2021 survey, White Christian Nationalists make up only 14% of the American population. (Comparisons cannot be exact because of time differences and whether adults only are counted.) The distinction is this: While most Catholics in JFK’’s day were likely to vote Democratic, and most Mormons all along have tended to vote Republican, Presidential nominees of each faith felt it both necessary and factual to declare that their religion would not dictate their governance. And they were believed (for the most part). White Christian Nationalists, who now dominate (in influence if not in simple numbers) the Republican party feel free to openly declare their intention to place their religious beliefs above the Constitution they swore — on their Bibles — to uphold. Rubin, again: So the question remains for [Mike Johnson] and others who cite the Bible as their “rule book”: Will they follow the Constitution when it’s in conflict with their religious views? If not, they should follow Ashcroft’s statement and resign. Officeholders might take an oath on the Bible (or other text), but they take an oath to the Constitution, which, unsurprisingly, contradicts the Bible in many significant respects. You cannot have two rule books if you are to abide by your oath. I decided to write this diary in part because Rubin’s use of Kennedy, Romney, and Ashcroft as role models suggests a tactic we should develop as an attack on today’s Republicans: Ask all of them — as reporters asked Ashcroft the other week — if they can be faithful to their oath to the Constitution even when it goes against their personal religious views. And if not, ask them why they are swearing falsely (per the Ten Commandments) and why should we, the electorate, give them any kind of Constitutional power at all. Last point: Religious “nones” are a growing group across the U.S. and Mountain West. These are the people who, whether or not they believe in a God, have little to no use for organized religion. “Almost a third of U.S. residents are now a part of that demographic. [emphasis added]” That’s a lot of votes, folks. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/11/9/2204686/-J-Rubin-Make-Elected-Officials-Choose-The-Constitution-or-the-Bible?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/