An unusual endorsement

I have given a great deal of thought to whether or not to make this endorsement public in this forum. However, given my post-election posts (see my archive entries for 10/31/04 - 11/20/04), I think that the current election for chairman of the Democratic National Committee really does matter for the future of religion in American politics, because religion does not start and stop with a single political party.

My friend and former boss Simon Rosenberg, the founder of the New Democrat Network, is running for Chair of the Democratic National Committee. He has the experience and the vision that the party needs. As I learned a little more than twelve years ago when we first worked together, Simon gets it. He understands that a field operation cannot succeed if there is no message -- and he understands that a message is a castle in the clouds without a field operation to win on the ground.

In his reactions to the "faith-based voters" panic that took place after the November elections, Simon has stressed that the Democratic Party has to do a better job of communicating with religious voters because it has to do a better job of communicating with all voters. What impresses me is the notion that while lots of other folks (myself included, to a certain extent) were overplaying Democrats' failure to connect with religious voters, he refused to let it distract from the larger issue of how the party was communicating with (a) America as a whole and (b) the range of key subgroups -- Hispanics, African-Americans, married women, and religious voters. His idea is not only that Democrats should not let any single piece of the puzzle get mistaken for the whole thing -- but also that the puzzle can't be complete without all the pieces. As I understand his approach, Simon is as committed to listening to religious voters as he is to learning to speak their language.

Most importantly, Simon is one of the most decent human beings I have had the pleasure to know: he is in this business for all the right reasons.

To my Republican readers who may be disappointed to see me make this kind of endorsement, I want to say that with Simon Rosenberg at the head of the Democratic Party, I believe you can expect an honorable opponent who will lift the level of debate in America over the things that matter most to all of us: faith, family, community, prosperity, safety, opportunity. The body politic is at its healthiest when its political parties are led by people of honor and vision for the good of the nation. As I noted shortly after the election and The New York Times is just now reporting, 2008 is wide open. It's up to us, Democrats and Republicans alike, to ensure that the vital conversation over our nation's future moves us forward rather than back.

[UPDATE I: Tim Chambers, whom I had the pleasure of meeting on Thursday at a breakfast for Simon, credits me, via the above post, with influencing his thoughts about the DNC race. I can't think of a better way to say thank you than to link back to his progressive Christian blog. Also, there's more on Simon's approach to "moral values" in JollyBuddah's partial transcript of Simon's Q&A with California Democrats at the DNC Western Regional Caucus.]

[UPDATE II: Matt Stoller at SimonForChair.org calls this an endorsement "worth reading." Thanks, Matt.]