Big Top Or Big Con?

"Since the image of a big tent suggests a circus, one may wonder why political parties often want to claim it for themselves," Christopher Zehnder begins his feature article in the current issue of Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission. While the big tent connotes inclusiveness for party hacks, as Zehnder notes, for many voters it conjures up clowns.

So it is strange that "big tent" would suddenly be applied to the Democratic Party, long the small tent haven for "abortion rights." Even more strange is that...[it is being] used in relation to attempts by some in the Democratic Party to be more inclusive of anti-abortion or pro-life members. For the first time in 32 years, Democrats [are] asking their pro-life party members to join the act in the party's newly designed big tent.

Or are they? True enough, as Zender reports:

Even the likes of House minority leader Nancy Pelosi (San Francisco) and Senator John Kerry himself were reaching out to Democrat pro-lifers....Pelosi, a staunch pro-abortion representative, encouraged Tim Roemer, a former pro-life Democratic representative from Pennsylvania, to run for the chairmanship of the Democratic Party...though he ultimately lost to Vermont's pro-abortion former governor Howard Dean....Shortly after his election, Dean told party members not to refer to themselves as "pro-choice," so as not to offend conservatives.

All in all, this is quite a change, given that, Kristin Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America, could not convince the Democratic National Committee to even list her pro-life group on their website. Still, the question remains:

What is one to make of this new Democratic big tent? Is it sincere? Is it merely an attempt to lure in "red state" voters who supposedly gave President George W. Bush his November victory precisely because Bush is "pro-life"? Or is the party trying to pull the canvas over our eyes?

In short, is it really a big tent or simply a sideshow? For some interesting perspectives on this question, read the rest of Zehnder's thought-provoking analysis. And for the answer, stay tuned to Catholics in the Public Square. (In the interim, clues can be found in the preceding links.)