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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 21, 2023

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As far as I'm aware, all candidates for President at least present as religious, even if in practise they're agnostic or atheist. I don't know if it's viable to run as an openly atheist candidate, but I suspect not.

Did Bernie bother at all? Wasn't my impression.

I don't remember him speaking about it, but that's not the same as being an overt atheist.

In this case, he needs to convince the majority Christian Republican voter base that despite being born a Hindu, he has a relatively palatable theology.

I think he would be in a lot more trouble on this issue if Trump wasn’t such a front runner. Right now there is a significant part of the GOP that would really prefer not Trump but will vote for him. I think this especially includes the big-money backers (Musks/Griffin) and probably mosts of the conservative PMC (I guess like me). Since Desantis has flatlined there is a significant look at whenever gets momentum.

If Trump got a heart attack tomorrow I think this would be a much bigger issue.