The authors of the Democratic platform have inadvertently revealed to the world the sea change that has taken place in that party we once knew.
For the first time—and in the longest Democratic platform in history, 26,000 words—there was not a single mention of God, the Creator, whom Thomas Jefferson himself, father of the party, proclaimed to be the author of our right to life and liberty.
The convention had approved the new platform, but when a firestorm erupted, a panicked Barack Obama hastily ordered "God" reinstated.
But when the amendment was offered to the convention by its chairman, Antonio Villaraigosa, the idea of restoring the name of God to the platform was hooted, jeered and booed by half the delegates on the floor, who three times howled, "No!"
The omission of God is being called an oversight. But the viral reaction to returning God, even when Obama asked that it be done, testifies that this was no accident. God was deleted deliberately.
This process has been under way for a decade. In the 2004 platform, there were seven references to God. In 2008, one.
Like the European Union, whose Christian heritage is being excised from official documents by its secularist elite, the country led by the Democratic Party of Obama is being de-Christianized.
Still, why would Democrats do something so seemingly stupid, something that will inevitably cause a backlash among believers?
Answer: Millions of Democrats are themselves offended when God is included, because for them, the God of the Old and New testaments is an impediment to the progressive march of mankind.
A year ago, in writing "Suicide of a Superpower," I discovered that the number of self-identified Christians had fallen from 85 percent of the U.S. population in 1990 to 75 percent last year and that 1 in 6 Americans now disbelieve in God.
Of Americans younger than 30, 1 in 4 profess no faith. Among Democrats, the figures are surely higher.
Which brings us to the quandary faced by the platform writers.
Why include in a statement of party beliefs a reference to God when a huge slice of that party would be deeply offended because such a reference would be the party's formal declaration that their atheist or agnostic beliefs are wrong.
Some atheists place a belief in God or Christ as the Son of God on a par with believing in Santa Claus. Others regard religion and especially fundamentalist faith as an often-destructive force because of what they believe it has produced over the centuries—intolerance, inquisitions, massacres, martyrdoms, religious wars.
Among the evils a deep belief in the God of the Torah and New Testament has produced, they argue, is the systematic persecution of homosexuals. Thus, the Democratic platform declares:
"We support marriage equality and support the movement to secure equal treatment under law for same-sex couples," while the Republican platform calls for a "Constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman."
The Republican platform is clearly rooted in traditional Christian beliefs that marriage is strictly between a man and a woman and that homosexual acts are unnatural and immoral and ruinous to body and soul.
Yet, as the man from Chick-fil-A discovered when he asserted those biblically based beliefs about homosexual marriage, that opinion comes close to being a hate crime in the new dispensation.
To the God-fearing and God-loving, this campaign to redefine marriage to include homosexual unions is out of a George Orwell novel. But to gay rights champions, opposition to homosexuals' right to marry and adopt is the mark of the homophobe, the hater, the bigot.
There is no common ground.
But if the party platforms are irreconcilable on homosexual marriage, that is equally true of their positions on life.
Here is the Democratic platform:
"The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to make decisions regarding her pregnancy, including a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay. We oppose any and all efforts to weaken that right. ...
"There is no place for ... government to get in the way."
Under this plank, the father has no rights whatsoever and no role in deciding whether his unborn child lives or dies. There are no parental rights. Society cannot interfere in any way with a woman's decision to terminate her unborn child's life at any point in her pregnancy.
This is a Democratic declaration of support for partial-birth abortion in the eighth and ninth month of pregnancy should a woman so decide, with the rest of us forced to pay for that abortion.
This is a form of feminist fanaticism heretofore unseen in this republic.
No platform celebrating homosexual marriage and backing a woman's right to abort her child at any time in her pregnancy can be credibly adopted by a party that also purports to revere the God of our Founding Fathers.
In truth, this Democratic Party was a godless institution long before its platform writers declared it to be so.
The howlers had it right. God doesn't belong in that platform.
Patrick J. Buchanan needs no introduction to VDARE.COM readers; his book State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America, can be ordered from Amazon.com. His most recent published book is Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War": How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World,reviewed here by Paul Craig Roberts. His new book Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025? was released October 18, 2011.
