I am new to MyDD. In fact, I did not stumble on to this forum until after the election. I have been participating in the election post-mortem. There are so many issues to discuss and so much to be hashed-out moving forward that I want to focus on a single dimension that indisputedly played a significant role in the Democrat defeat last week: Faith and moral values. Just how big a role moral values played in the election is a matter of debate. Undoubtedly the media echo chamber has grossly overexaggerated the role it played. I appreciate very much Chris bringing clarity to the elections through his careful analysis and interpretation of the data from the election.

 So with those caveats, in this diary I will focus on only one prong of the multi-axis approach the Democratic Party needs to move forward. Religion and politics is the topic. I firmly believe that people of faith have a place in the democratic public square, not a privileged place, just a place along with everybody else. People of faith should not use the institutions of government to enact into law tenets that are drawn exclusively from their faith. This brings us quickly to life issues. In the first instance, belief in the inviolability (sic) and integrity of the human person is not drawn from faith, but reason. Albert Camus, a noted agnostic, thought that if this life is all there is it becomes that much more precious.

  I am a philosopher by education and training, not a politico. I welcome pragmatic, hard-hitting political realists to weigh in.