Repugs Get Rebuked - in North Dakota

It may be even more republican than it is dry and cold, but the voters there have their heads on straight, which is more than a lot of states (I'm looking at YOU, Wisconsin) can say.

From Maddowblog:

North Dakota voters overwhelmingly reject a ballot initiative that would have let people act or refuse to act because of religious beliefs. They also voted to keep property taxes and to dump the nickname the Fighting Sioux.

John Nichols at The Nation:

The right-wing messaging machine assembled by Republican stalwarts and their conservative allies to defeat President Obama and the Democrats in 2012 has for more than a year been carefully constructing a campaign to gin up fears that the Obama administration is mounting a war on "religious freedom." It's part of a broader project of raising concerns that might break loose economically-populist but socially-conservative voters in the swing states that will decide whether President Obama is reelected. But the voters of North Dakota -- not exactly a bastion of anticlericalism -- have offered evidence that this cynical gaming of the age old debate over chuch-state relations might not get much traction.

A statewide referendum designed to create sweeping new exemptions for religious activity in secular life -- based on the precept that: “Government may not burden a person’s or religious organization’s religious liberty" -- was soundly rejected by the red state's voters Tuesday.

North Dakotans defeated the referendum by a vote of 107,186 to 60,129.

SNIP

“(The) victory belongs to the people of North Dakota who stood up for religious freedom by defeating the divisive Measure 3. This ballot measure could have allowed discrimination and health-care refusals and tied up the state in costly legal battles,” said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “The message to anti-choice groups is clear: voters are tired of your divisive attacks that undermine the fundamental American values of freedom and privacy.”

The success of that campaign ought to serve as a signal to the Obama administration, Democrats and responsible Republicans that they can push back against the manufactured "Religious Freedom" campaign.

Precisely. When liberals stand tall and strong for liberal values, they win.

And if they can do it in crimson North Dakota, they can do it in your state.

Read the whole thing.