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The Miracle Workers
For 25 years, evangelicals have voted Republican. But the Democrats are courting, and their efforts may have a prayer.

Oct. 1, 2007 issue - Richard Land had never met one-on-one with a chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The Tennessee evangelist, an influential force in the Southern Baptist Convention, generally views such people as adversaries, if not enemies. So consider his surprise when, at a nonpartisan leadership conference over the New Year's holiday, Howard Dean leaned in and said he'd love to get together for a private chat. Land agreed to meet for coffee at a downtown Washington hotel. He was wary: "I brought a witness," he jokes now. Dean was there to chip away at Land's loyalty to the GOP, and strangely, Land found himself warming to the liberal Democrat. Among other things, he admired Dean's frugality. "He hauled his own suitcase around, and the Capitol Hill Suites isn't exactly fancy," Land tells NEWSWEEK. "I was impressed." More important, the two men had something to talk about, and did so cordially. "Dean told me how the Democrats were pro-life in that they wanted a country in which abortion was rare. I said, 'I agree, but we disagree how to get there.' Still, it was certainly a change in tone."

...

No one expects miracles, of course. Conservative Christians started shifting to the Republicans as the "party of values" in 1979, when Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority. They were the most important bloc of voters in George W. Bush's victories in 2000 and 2004. But the movement is not as cohesive as it once was. Many younger evangelicals are worried about issues beyond the traditional struggles over abortion, school prayer and gay marriage. They're becoming vocal about the environment, AIDS, poverty and genocide—a newer set of "values" that Democrats are more comfortable addressing.

...

Such efforts, along with general disillusionment with Bush, may have already paid off. According to a Pew Research Center survey in February, support for Democratic candidates among white evangelicals under 30 jumped from 16 to 26 percent between the 2004 and 2006 elections. Some evangelical leaders now say they're tired of being viewed as an appendage of the GOP, or any other party. "We want to be viewed as we are—people of faith—not a political bloc," says Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20920353/site/newsweek/
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Soooo the 21st century Republican Party have managed to (*)(*)(*)(*) off the old school conservatives, and the evangelicals are disillusioned with them, and the hispanic bloc have been turned away, same with the independents..

Which would explain dubya's 29% job approval rating.

I think the democrats policy towards values voters should be to improve our education system so kids don't grow up to vote based on stupid social issues.

Yeah, the one problem I see is that this will make evangelicals more important in the Democratic Party... I have a hard enough time hoping that we'll be able to overcome the far-left influence... but between the Hispanic Catholics and the rural evangelicals... good holy hell!
But I see it more likely that the parties will continue trading off this swing group and breaking promises to them throughout the foreseeable future. The only scary part is that these are the guys most likely to think it's a sign of the end when they get used and run out into the woods with weapons.

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"It's never over... BOY!"
The Tall Man, Phantasm III

Uh, the evangelical right, contrary to the OP which regurgitates the standard liberal spin on the issue, aren't leaving the republican party because they are born-again liberals - they're doing it because they've been the most stalwart backers of the republican party, which has done NOTHING for them.

As long as that policy exists we can count on votes in the Republican camp!

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All you need to know about the energy crisis:
ANWR Exploration Republicans: 91% Supported. Democrats: 86% Opposed.
Coal-to-liquid R's: 90% YES. D's: 78% NO.
Oil Shale Exploration R's: 90% YES. D's: 86% NO.
Outer Continental Shelf Exploration R's: 81% YES. D's: 83% NO.
Increased Refinery Capacity R's: 97% YES. D's: 96% NO

SUMMARY: 91% of House Republicans have historically voted to increase the production of America’s own oil and gas. 86% of House Democrats have historically voted against.

I think we should improve our education so kids won't grow up so ignorant that they will vote for war-mongering liars and have us in this mess we are in now.

Yeah, well, I saw/heard an interesting phenomenon on Fox this morning. It has to do with the Ahmedinejad visit to Columbia. So, they start out at like four in the morning, with all kinds of vociferous bluster about how evil this guy is, and then around 9 or so they start interviewing the students, and then the tone changes -

'Cause half the students they're talking to, are saying that this guy may be evil, but he still deserves to be heard - so suddenly the producers at Fox decide to open the thing up to the public, so around eleven or so they do a "poll", and just then - the President comes on TV and basically says the whole thing was "no big deal" -

And then Fox echos "no bid deal", and sure enough, the polls echo "no big deal".

I mean, what do you think would have happened it the Prez would have said "roast the guy"? Maybe ten minutes later, the polls and e-mails would have come up "roast the guy" -

I mean, so yeah - this is on a conservative station with a conservative audence, and it's almost like the latter is waiting for "someone" to decide -

It's like, everyone's hanging in the balance and Fox is saying, "well, what should we believe on this one" (you know, they "don't know", so they're asking the audience), and the audience "doesn't know" (they're evenly divided) -

See what I mean?

So suddenly "someone" decides, and all the sheeple just go along, like good little sheeple..... it's amazing, really.

So, reason I'm saying this, is 'cause I've seen that exact same behavior in churches. exactly the same. It's like, everyonr's hanging around waiting for someone else to decide, and that kinda relieves them of the burden of having to think for themselves, or whatever....

Some of these pastors are very powerful people (I mean, "politically"), there's no doubt about that.

But maybe some of them haven't learned their history lessons too well - I mean, you can't regulate peoples' perceptions through coersion, that just doesn't work. It might work "for a little while" if you can pull the wool over peoples' eyes in some other areas, but eventually the truth will come out. The question then, is how do you "rationalize" those changing perceptions, and that'e exactly where religion offers answers that other studies don't - and a lot of people are attracted by that, and in some cases it works for them and they attach themselves to it.

My political opinion, would be, that those kinds of people are entirely asleep. That would be like, Rip Van Voter or something - you know, waking up twenty years later, and "hey, things have changed".....

Oh goody! Now we can start painting Dems as "religious whack-o's.''

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"This is a time for a national imperative not to fail in Iraq." Condoleeza Rice, January 11, 2007

There have been a few cracks in the evangelical base. The gap in the last election was only 58-41 in favor of Republicans, although that number is 70-28 when you factor in race (white evangelicals). Overall, 44% of Protestants and 55% of Catholics voted for Democrats. I don't think the trend differs much from the overall political trend in this country, though. Overall, most groups shifted left in '06.

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/pag.../epolls.0.html

David Kuo's book is highly recommended.

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See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction.

- G.W. Bush, 10/3/2003

Obama courts conservatives with new faith program
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer 4 minutes ago

ZANESVILLE, Ohio - Taking a page from President Bush, Democrat Barack Obama said Tuesday he wants to expand White House efforts to steer social service dollars to religious groups, risking protests in his own party with his latest aggressive reach for voters who usually vote Republican. Obama contended he is merely stating long-held positions — surprising to some, he said, after a primary campaign in which he was "tagged as being on the left."

In recent days, with the Democratic nomination in hand and the general election battle with Republican John McCain ahead, Obama has been sounding centrist themes with comments on guns, government surveillance and capital punishment. He's even quoted Ronald Reagan.

On Tuesday, touring Presbyterian Church-based social services facility, the Democratic senator said he would get religious charities more involved in government anti-poverty efforts if elected.

"We need an all-hands-on-deck approach," he said at Eastside Community Ministry.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080701/...wRk8Hxkz_Cw5R4

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I likes.




edit'course I'd likes mo'better if BHO would just see the light and join The One True Faith, The Roman Catholic Church™.

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"When I'm in command, every mission is a suicide mission!" -Capt. Zapp Branigan
The United Church of the Latter Day Tangential Tarts