Unsurprisingly, Rep. Steve King's (R-IA) ridiculous resolution promoting the importance of Christmas passed overwhelmingly. But in a pleasant surprise, some folks did stand up -- 9 Congresspersons (all Democrats) voted against, and 10 Congressional Representatives voted "present."
One of whom was Republican Mike Pence of Indiana. This is intriguing.
Pence, for those of you who don't know him, is a conservative's conservative. He was the right-wing's preferred candidate for House Minority Leader after the Republican's crushing defeat in 2006 (he was annihilated by John Boehner in that race), and he describes himself as "a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order." In other words, he hardly seems the sort to register his dissent from Christianist orthodoxy here. And yet, I'm looking at a vote tally that says he did just that.
Anyone know what's up?
I wish I could say that Pence's law school education might have taught him something about the problems inherent to government's involvement in religion, but I'm going to chalk this up as a mystery too.
ReplyDeleteOh, and to follow up on your post below about how the people who think this is a Protestant Christian nation are getting confused between the legacy of Puritans and that of Jefferson, et al.: Puritans didn't celebrate Christmas.
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