Posted on 08/30/2006 8:56:33 PM PDT by Rawlings
When Democratic Party leaders "found God in the 2004 exit polls," as Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. likes to say, no one expected instant results. Many of the party's early efforts to attract religious voters, after all, were scattershot and not a little awkward. No one knew quite what the "faith staffer"—a new breed of legislative aide—was supposed to do, and random-seeming insertions of Bible verses into floor speeches came off as Tourette's syndrome for Democrats. In the longer run, though, the new focus on forming relationships with religious communities and voters has been the right move for a party that had essentially limited its religious outreach to black churches. Democratic campaign trainings now smartly include tips for communicating with Catholic voters. Candidates are starting to appear on religious radio outlets. And Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has even stopped saying things to intentionally antagonize evangelicals.
Which is why it is startling that in the two years since this Democratic revival began, the party's faith-friendly image has dimmed rather than improved. The Pew Research Center's annual poll on religion and politics, released last week, shows that while 85 percent of voters say religion is important to them, only 26 percent of Americans think the Democratic Party is "friendly" to religion. That's down from 40 percent in the summer of 2004 and 42 percent the year before that—in other words, a 16-point plunge over three years. The decline is especially troubling because it cuts across the political and religious spectra, encompassing liberals and conservatives, white and black evangelicals, mainline Protestants, Catholics, and Jews
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
What arrogance.
I pray that you are correct in that assessment.
I think it means social conservative.
Which is why it is startling that in the two years since this Democratic revival began, the party's faith-friendly image has dimmed rather than improved.
Let the Dems be Dems. I like the foaming at the mouth.
This could be an example of Politically Unintelligent Design in action.
You're right. Amy Sullivan is very, very condascending. But she's right. The Rats are screwed until they can sincerely embrace faith. Since leftism is so inimicable to faith, that's not likely to happen for a long while.
"SoCon" is just a squished together version of "Social Conservative."
With the ACLU demon democrats trying to squash religious liberties and freedoms everywhere we sheeple 'Socons' not buying the fake liberal pibble about Dems seeking to win over Christian conservatives.....They can 'fahgedaboutit'
I never heard the term SoCons either, but I think it must be social conservatives.
Leftists seem to feel perfectly comfortable with the idea of lying for the good old cause, so that sort of behavior doesn't bother their base very much. But real Christians and Jews tend to think that there's something a little, well, WRONG about lying.
So these obvious lies about pretending to be religious when they obviously aren't can only make things worse.
I'm glad the left is the way it is, forever bungling about with inefficient boobery. Let liberalism s(t)ink until it is no more.
Really? It's new to me.
Hopefully they once again have pushed too hard.
Terminator Squashes Religious Freedom (FR)
By then, they probably would have changed their party affiliation.
Wow!! From your lips to God's ears.
The Dems continue to chase whatever issue they think can pull in more votes, more political power for them. The GOP provides true leadership, it doesn't chase the polls.
Like so many other issues the Dems chase and promote, they have no real interest in Religion. In fact, liberals would seem to be openly hostile towards religion under various high-minded sounding guises. Yet their new spin and "marketing" is chasing after a pro-religion image?
The Dems rabid pandering to any group they think they can fool into a few votes would be funny if it weren't so pathetic and insulting to our intelligence.
But golly, I just saw bleached-blonde kristen whats-her-name on TV bleating about how religious she is!
Democrats enticing support from Christians is like Hezbullah enticing support from Israelis.
It's "Juan Paolo" when he's courting La Raza.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.