Democrats Have a Problem With Religion. One Man Is Helping Fix It.

Ilyse Hogue wrote for Slate, in conversation with Dahlia Lithwick, to discuss the role of faith in building durable pluralistic movements.

Dahlia Lithwick: You have long said that it is a tactical mistake to simply allow the GOP to occupy the faith field for decades. How is it that this came about, and why is any effort to root progressive values in religion seen as inherently divisive and counterproductive?

Ilyse Hogue: The 1980 election was a defining moment for the role of religion in party politics. Through the ’70s, Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority teamed up with Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum to wrest power from the more dominant Rockefeller Republicans who had advanced a socially liberal, fiscally conservative framework for the GOP. This new “religious right” coalition was joined in common cause to reverse the significant advancements of the Civil Rights, gay rights, and women’s rights movements of the ’60s and ’70s. Their cynical ploy was to use the candidacy of Ronald Reagan—a divorced actor cum politician—as a stalking horse to advance their radical vision for a white patriarchy to retain hegemonic power in America. When Reagan’s long-shot bid successfully ousted the overtly devout incumbent Jimmy Carter, it sent both sides reeling. That equation—embedding a racist and misogynistic view of social order in a religious ideology—is recognizable as the playbook followed by Falwell’s descendants and disciples in the 2016 election of Donald Trump.