We, as American members of the Democratic party, must continue working to make sure religion and government stay

separate for the sake of us all being better off as a country. Just four years ago, our solution to this problem, which seemed quite unpopular back then, was to help those who felt as if they were being threatened by religious views being thrown at them. For instance, we were fighting to make sure people from the LGBT community could continue to live happily with the person they loved like they were able to before their place in society became highly politicized. We were fighting to ensure that women could keep the right of having more leniency when it came to their health. They could continue to have the deserved right to get an abortion if they ever felt like their pregnancy ever did become life-threatening. And finally, we were fighting to eliminate the idea of having creationism taught in public schools so that science classes could continue to teach facts and real-life discoveries. As indicated by the 2012 Presidential Election outcome, just about fifty-two percent of America is already in favor of our views as of now. The majority now agrees that same-sex marriage is a human right, woman can make choices based on the condition of their health regardless of the matter being about abortion or birth control, and creationism literally has nothing to do at all with science and should be left as a topic discussed in one's own church. Therefore, finding a solution to climate change can now be taken seriously instead of being dismissed by some who think that only God has the ultimate power of bringing an end to the world, not global warming. Our direction, is the direction America now chooses to continue taking. However, although our ideas ended up being supported by the majority of America, we cannot forget about this issue and celebrate just yet. Just because we won this time does not mean they have lost forever. There are forty-seven percent of Americans who still vote for the party that wants religious values to be adopted by the state. The percentage difference between the people who support our view and their view on this issue is five percent. Even though this is a sizable difference as of now, the gap will slowly begin to decrease again if we do not continue to spread our message, especially on this issue. There is a very high possibility that our opposition will find some way to continue implementing their policy of keeping church and state equal. There is also certainly no doubt that they could be successful in doing so too, considering that they still own the majority of house seats in the U.S. Congress. In order to increase this gap before it comes to a close, we must always remember to never forget that our solution of calling for a complete separation of church and state is the right decision. This is because unlike the solution of the Republican party, our solution does not target or discriminate any community in America. Yes, that even includes religious people as well. There is a way for religious people and other groups to coexist peacefully in America. In order for this to happen, church and state need to be completely separated. Now, although this might seem like something that all religious people will not be comfortable with, it would be actually fitting in their case if they did so. I mean, it is not like they are being persecuted for being religious. They obviously still have the right to practice their faith peacefully under the 1st

Amendment. They can still share and express their religious beliefs in their own church. They can easily refrain from doing what they believe to be morally wrong without having a state law made telling them to do so. For instance, people of other religious beliefs think that there are certain things that are not beneficial to society. Jews and Muslims are obligated to not eat pork or drink alcohol, so they choose not to. However, you never see them trying to make laws that enforce others to do the same. Likewise, these people should not be as enforcing also, and they will probably be respected more for it since others will not feel like they are being threatened. The biggest challenge we face though is how we will continue spreading our message so that even more people will take our side. The best way to do this is to find more candidates who share our same view on this issue and call them to run for office for the house elections coming up in 2014. This is the same exact tactic that the conservatives used in 2010 when they were planning to disrupt the democratic majority in congress. They ran all of the tea-party candidates after seeing that the tea-party movement had risen to popularity. They won by huge margins since America impatiently felt like there needed to be a change in congress due to them slowly disproving of democratic policies. However, now that the Republican party's reputation has been tarnished after people saw how religiously extreme the tea-party candidates in their party were, the people are now starting to turn back to us again and we must take full advantage of this opportunity while we still can. If we run all these candidates who will fight to ensure that religion becomes separate from government, our favorability with the American people will continue to increase. However, the one mistake that cannot be made is that we must continue to stay as moderate as we can and not attack any religion directly. If we fail to do this, we will end up hopeless into the hands of the Republican party again. So I urge you, all of my fellow democrats, to continue taking the stance of wanting religion and government to stay separate and helping the rest of America follow in that direction as well so that all of us can be better off as a nation.