Post-partisan Episcopalians?

In a recent column, Ruth Marcus of The Washington Post raised a question about the Democratic Party that is also relevant to liberal Episcopalians:

One of the most interesting contrasts between last year’s State of the Union address and this year’s has nothing to do with President Bush. It involves the transformed tone of the Democratic response, from partisan lion to post-partisan lamb.

And this, in turn, reflects a schism in Democratic thinking — to what extent to be the party of fighters and to what extent the party of Kumbaya — that is being played out most prominently in the presidential race.

Last year’s Democratic response came from Jim Webb, the newly elected, perennially pugnacious senator from Virginia. A former Reagan administration official turned populist, antiwar Democrat, Webb’s most recent book, about the Scottish-Irish influence on America, was “Born Fighting.” His speech lived up to type.

Webb invoked the memory of Teddy Roosevelt taking on the robber barons and Dwight Eisenhower ending the Korean War: “These presidents took the right kind of action, for the benefit of the American people and for the health of our relations around the world. Tonight we are calling on this president to take similar action, in both areas. If he does, we will join him. If he does not, we will be showing him the way.”

Flash forward to Monday night. For a brash male senator speaking from Washington, substitute a soothing female governor, Kansan Kathleen Sebelius, speaking from the heartland. Both Webb and Sebelius were new faces, from purple (Virginia) and red (Kansas) states, but their messages could not have been more different.

Seated in front of a flickering fire, with a colorful spray of flowers beside her, Sebelius was assertively post-partisan — so much so that some Democratic lawmakers grumbled afterward that there was not enough mention of their accomplishments.

“I’m a Democrat, but tonight, it really doesn’t matter whether you think of yourself as a Democrat or a Republican or an independent. Or none of the above,” Sebelius began. “In this time, normally reserved for the partisan response, I hope to offer you something more — an American response.” Instead of Webb’s bellicose challenge to lead or step aside, Sebelius’s message was more accommodating: “Join us, Mr. President.” Americans, she said, “aren’t afraid to face difficult choices. But we have no more patience for divisive politics.”

(The rest is here.)

How should liberals respond to the facts that the long-predicted global schism seems to be shrinking, and that key conservative priests in the dioceses of San Joaquin and Pittsburgh are deserting their schismatic bishops is an open quesiton. One can simultaneously delight in the fact that increasing numbers of conservative Episcopalians are choosing to remain in the Church, while worrying that in certain dioceses, this might mean that gays and women will continue to be marginalized, and diocesan leaders will continue to work with groups such as the Institute on Religion and Democracy to destabilize the church.

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