Ignoring Gerson

Another point of agreement between Steve Benen and myself: Democrats should ignore Michael Gerson.

Liberal journalists, on the other hand, should pillory him relentlessly every time he writes a column like this one: "It would be good for America if both parties were to appeal to religious voters."

Maybe I'm just trolling for a link from Andrew Sullivan, but this is extremely backwards. If a politician opposes abortion, fine. If a politician wants to fight poverty, even better. But if a politician suggests that his or her religious faith is the engine behind those ideas, then they're priming religious voters to expect them to adopt an across-the-board religious platform. And it would be wildly better for the country if religious voters--or any powerful voting bloc--understood that they couldn't count on anyone in the government to pander to them as part of a standard operating procedure.