This week's Paola Ramos's Field Report focuses on Republican Maya Flores and her Evangelical supporters. Flores is interesting because she is a former Democrat "converted" to the Republicans for religious reasons. And she flipped a traditionally Latino-dominated south Texas district from blue to red in a special election earlier this ye…
This week's Paola Ramos's Field Report focuses on Republican Maya Flores and her Evangelical supporters. Flores is interesting because she is a former Democrat "converted" to the Republicans for religious reasons. And she flipped a traditionally Latino-dominated south Texas district from blue to red in a special election earlier this year. What makes this show poignant is Flores's sincerity, her basic decency, and her naïveté.
One of the basic ideas through Ramos's show is how many Latinos who habitually voted Democratic have come to discover that Democrats simply don't represent their values, which they define as God, family, country. The Republican Party, in their view of it, comes much closer to representing those conservative values than the Democratic Party, so why do they just mindlessly vote Democrat?
That's very powerful question to pose to Latinos who have voted for Democrats not out of conviction but out of habit. There are a lot of Latinos in Texas and elsewhere right now that are being confronted with that question, and what answer do the Democrats have for them? That they're not as mean as Republicans on immigration?
That is very weak tea compared to the need so many people feel for their politics to align with their deepest metaphysical longings. That's what explains both Meloni in Italy and Flores in Texas--there is this deep desire for a more meaningful politics, a politics that is not just about fixing bridges and paying medical bills, a politics that aligns the world down here with the world up there. Such a longing, whether on the Left or the Right, seeks a cure that is worse than the disease, but is nevertheless something that has to be understood and confronted by Democrats better than they do.
Frankly, meaningfulness is my issue, my issue exactly. Neither party aligns with some of my deepest held beliefs. But, because I am an evangelical, I believe change comes from the heart not from politics.
But, that doesn’t mean that I am not troubled even though I continue to vote for Democrats. I feel like the left despises me because of my faith and my belief children belong within marriage, for their sakes. I look with deep dismay at the amount of children born out of wedlock and raised by parents who continue in serial relationships, as the girlfriend or the boyfriend come in and out of the children’s lives. 
I am sorry you feel despised. Religious beliefs in general benefit the lives of the faithful in innumerable ways. It has greatly helped civilization move away from lawlessness and immorality. However we are now a civilization of laws & knowledge; not yet perfect, but with other tools and norms to support the kind of behaviors that keep us civilized. We don't need religious faith to know that a stable home is beneficial for the child. I think what the left doesn't like is 1) bringing church back into state, 2) People who use their faith to judge others and 3) people who use their faith to try to control others. We have good laws built around trying to be blind and treat everybody the same. This is a system that can work for everyone; attaching religion to government automatically puts people of other religions in opposition.
And please don't be offended if I ask, are you doing anything to promote publically the benefits of a stable home environment with married parents?
Oh good heavens. I think you’ve been reading too much Atwood. Stay away from binging Handmaid’s Tale. You obviously think we’re all gunning for a theocracy.
Not all, and not you. I meant the left does not despise you because of your views, the left despises Lauren Boebert, MTG, Josh Hawley, Kristy Noem and others that literally say there should be no separation of church and state. The left despises people who publically proclaim their faith in one sentence then demonstrate judgement or call for violence in the next. I may have been making a veiled case against faith and apologize for addressing you with it. Please do not restrict your interactions in places like these because of me. I was probably triggered by something else when I commented.
Thank you for your response. I admit I was tired when I responded. I try to be respectful but don’t always succeed.
Christian Nationalism and Seven Mountain Dominionism are heretical. Jesus responded, even at the time, to the agitation of His followers telling them His Kingdom was not of this world. To this day some Xns still find that perplexing.
I have the same issues with Boebert et. al. that you do. I add to it embarrassment that these politicians are considered exemplars of my faith.
Keep in mind, plenty on the left are religious. We've got just our second Catholic President right now, and that's a bit of a bounce back after four years of an atheist in office.
That said, the left is not immune in the slightest from intolerance and bigotry, but it is by no means universal. Personally I have no problem with those who believe so long as they aren't trying to push that into the realm of governing and/or are being willfully blind that theirs is just one of hundreds (thousands?) of belief systems that are out there.
Our religious convictions are central to our being, and so of course they must influence our political choices. Politics should never be a substitute for religion; it should never be a source for giving one's life meaning. You need to find that elsewhere.
The problem becomes when we think of politics as being anything more than people getting together to solve practical problems of common concern. Whenever it becomes a religious project, it usually corrupts both politics and religion.
This week's Paola Ramos's Field Report focuses on Republican Maya Flores and her Evangelical supporters. Flores is interesting because she is a former Democrat "converted" to the Republicans for religious reasons. And she flipped a traditionally Latino-dominated south Texas district from blue to red in a special election earlier this year. What makes this show poignant is Flores's sincerity, her basic decency, and her naïveté.
One of the basic ideas through Ramos's show is how many Latinos who habitually voted Democratic have come to discover that Democrats simply don't represent their values, which they define as God, family, country. The Republican Party, in their view of it, comes much closer to representing those conservative values than the Democratic Party, so why do they just mindlessly vote Democrat?
That's very powerful question to pose to Latinos who have voted for Democrats not out of conviction but out of habit. There are a lot of Latinos in Texas and elsewhere right now that are being confronted with that question, and what answer do the Democrats have for them? That they're not as mean as Republicans on immigration?
That is very weak tea compared to the need so many people feel for their politics to align with their deepest metaphysical longings. That's what explains both Meloni in Italy and Flores in Texas--there is this deep desire for a more meaningful politics, a politics that is not just about fixing bridges and paying medical bills, a politics that aligns the world down here with the world up there. Such a longing, whether on the Left or the Right, seeks a cure that is worse than the disease, but is nevertheless something that has to be understood and confronted by Democrats better than they do.
Frankly, meaningfulness is my issue, my issue exactly. Neither party aligns with some of my deepest held beliefs. But, because I am an evangelical, I believe change comes from the heart not from politics.
But, that doesn’t mean that I am not troubled even though I continue to vote for Democrats. I feel like the left despises me because of my faith and my belief children belong within marriage, for their sakes. I look with deep dismay at the amount of children born out of wedlock and raised by parents who continue in serial relationships, as the girlfriend or the boyfriend come in and out of the children’s lives. 
I am sorry you feel despised. Religious beliefs in general benefit the lives of the faithful in innumerable ways. It has greatly helped civilization move away from lawlessness and immorality. However we are now a civilization of laws & knowledge; not yet perfect, but with other tools and norms to support the kind of behaviors that keep us civilized. We don't need religious faith to know that a stable home is beneficial for the child. I think what the left doesn't like is 1) bringing church back into state, 2) People who use their faith to judge others and 3) people who use their faith to try to control others. We have good laws built around trying to be blind and treat everybody the same. This is a system that can work for everyone; attaching religion to government automatically puts people of other religions in opposition.
And please don't be offended if I ask, are you doing anything to promote publically the benefits of a stable home environment with married parents?
Oh good heavens. I think you’ve been reading too much Atwood. Stay away from binging Handmaid’s Tale. You obviously think we’re all gunning for a theocracy.
Not all, and not you. I meant the left does not despise you because of your views, the left despises Lauren Boebert, MTG, Josh Hawley, Kristy Noem and others that literally say there should be no separation of church and state. The left despises people who publically proclaim their faith in one sentence then demonstrate judgement or call for violence in the next. I may have been making a veiled case against faith and apologize for addressing you with it. Please do not restrict your interactions in places like these because of me. I was probably triggered by something else when I commented.
Thank you for your response. I admit I was tired when I responded. I try to be respectful but don’t always succeed.
Christian Nationalism and Seven Mountain Dominionism are heretical. Jesus responded, even at the time, to the agitation of His followers telling them His Kingdom was not of this world. To this day some Xns still find that perplexing.
I have the same issues with Boebert et. al. that you do. I add to it embarrassment that these politicians are considered exemplars of my faith.
Keep in mind, plenty on the left are religious. We've got just our second Catholic President right now, and that's a bit of a bounce back after four years of an atheist in office.
That said, the left is not immune in the slightest from intolerance and bigotry, but it is by no means universal. Personally I have no problem with those who believe so long as they aren't trying to push that into the realm of governing and/or are being willfully blind that theirs is just one of hundreds (thousands?) of belief systems that are out there.
I know! I keep saying so. I keep saying that our president, this president, is surely more Christian than the last one. 
You and me both, sister, only I no longer call myself an evangelical.
Our religious convictions are central to our being, and so of course they must influence our political choices. Politics should never be a substitute for religion; it should never be a source for giving one's life meaning. You need to find that elsewhere.
The problem becomes when we think of politics as being anything more than people getting together to solve practical problems of common concern. Whenever it becomes a religious project, it usually corrupts both politics and religion.