Approximately 20% of Bush voters in 04 identified themselves as evangelical Christians in exit polls. And that didn't include the many devout Catholics who are also social conservatives, and in many cases even more fervently pro-life than evangelicals. If just 20% of that sector of Bush voters had stayed home that day Kerry would now be president. Bush himself may have lost the support of a portion of those voters along with a portion of the non-religious conservative bloc who are very much disappointed by his lukewarm overall conservatism, but I don't believe that the party itself has lost enough of them to make that bloc as insignificant as this polltaker would like us to believe.
I still maintain that if Rudy wins the nomination Hillary will be the next president. The one thing I know for reasonably sure is that only one member of my 14 member extended family has said that she will vote for Rudy if he's nominated, and she will only vote for him because she detests Hillary so vehemently. The others, myself included, say they will vote for the Republican candidates for Congress and state offices, but either skip over the presidential space on the ballot or vote for a minor party nominee. We are all socially conservative evangelical Christians, and I can't believe that our voting intentions regarding the '08 election are as far out of line with other voters in that same category as this article would have us believe.
In primaries where the candidate with the highest vote total wins the entire slate of delegates, Rudy may well win enough delegates to take the nomination at the convention due to the large field of candidates. But that won't necessarily translate into a victory in November of '08 where electoral votes are the key element in the race.
Good post #11.....I agree but it appears the problem is deeper than just a loss of strong religious belief by the people, rather, it is more of a general breakdown of our Society as a whole...people’s beliefs have been shaken to the core, due in large part to the dreadful news we see on tv every day spelling out the chaos in Society
The answer is not in withholding your vote- that is like opening the door to anarchy. We have to be strong and vote Rep, for by not voting the evil ones will win by default.
As for that survey, does it really measure if people have lost many of their religious values, or are they resigned to the reality that we stil;l do not have the best Rep candidates running ?..i would like to see more surveys along this line by several large and reputable pollsters.
I voted for Bush in 04 because I knew a Kerry presidency would be no good, but I wasn’t happy with him then about some things, and still am not.