It depends I guess. It sounds mostly of the variety of personal belief and sure one can certainly be a democrat and hold a different belief than the norm. I believe Biden was personally pro-life but knows that governing and personal belief are two different things. Governing is NOT imposing your personal beliefs on others.
Provided candidates respect that same thing why would it be an issue?
That's the problem with the GOP...they are using personal and quite often religious beliefs to try to impose laws on everyone. When governing a nation full of diverse individuals that won't work in the long run.
This exchange during the VP debate sums it up:
Quote:
Q: What role your religion has played in your own personal views on abortion?
RYAN: I don't see how a person can separate their public life from their private life or from their faith.
BIDEN: My religion defines who I am. And I've been a practicing Catholic my whole life. And it has particularly informed my social doctrine. Catholic social doctrine talks about taking care of those who can't take care of themselves, people who need help. With regard to abortion, I accept my church's position that life begins at conception. That's the church's judgment. I accept it in my personal life. But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews and--I just refuse to impose that on others, unlike my friend here, the congressman. I do not believe that we have a right to tell other people that women can't control their body. It's a decision between them and their doctor, in my view. And the Supreme Court--I'm not going to interfere with that.
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On one side you have an essentially childlike response of "everything in my life influences everything else" with appeal to the evangelical base who I swear would desperately love to be a Christian ISIS. On the other side, a mature answer that recognizes that ones personal and religious beliefs are separate from the state and what the job at hand entails. You have the freedom to do what I say versus you have freedom to make your own decisions within the law of the land.