The Smaller God Gap

[Ahimsa]

Democrats make progress with religious voters but now have to reassess their approach to abortion.

The religious coalition that Republicans had assembled – evangelical Christians, regular churchgoers, and Catholics – shrunk on Tuesday.

The “God Gap” – One of the most important factors in recent years has been the development of a religiosity gap in which the most church-going Americans voted Republican and the least devout voted Democratic. This gap closed a bit in this election.

People who attended church weekly voted 58 percent to 41 percent for Bush in 2004. This year, they voted 51 percent for Republicans to 48 percentfor Democrats…

Catholics – With all the attention on evangelicals, we shouldn’t lose sight of another significant result: In this election, Democrats won back the Catholic vote. In 2004, President Bush beat John Kerry among Catholics 52 percent-47 percent. The exit polls for the House races show Catholics going 57 percent-42 percent for the Democrats. Democrats gained ground among white Catholics and Hispanics.

In all likelihood this has little to do with social issues but rather illustrates Catholic dissatisfaction with the Iraq war…

P.S. – Two Religious Milestones – With the election of Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, Congress has its first Muslim representative. Second, if the Democrats take control of the Senate, as now appears likely, they will likely elect a Mormon, Harry Reid of Nevada, as the leader. Given that the Church of Latter Day Saints used to be viewed by many Christians as heretical, it’s a sign of how far Mormons have come that Reid’s faith appears to be a non-issue.

 

[jman507]

Yes, this is going to be interesting to see how things shape out. It is all the better if both feel and want to court the religious voters, especially orthodox Catholics and Evangelicals. The Demo crates differently can make a play if they moderate their stances on abortion and issues along with that. If they do, then a lot of those in that group would part with the Republicans. How many? I don’t know. But there is another question is if they want to upset their far-left.

It is really going to take more than one election to see if this is really a trend. One thing could be since this was mainly a referendum on Bush and saying it would be a new day, but not exactly showing a unified platform, that vote might have not so much voted for the Democrats, but voted against the Republicans. The next election could very well be a referendum on the Democrats and how they are doing, since they promised a new day.

How everything is going to play out is yet to be scene. Will the Democrats try to moderate now that they have to govern, and possibly reassess stances on issues like abortion? Will Pelosi and Reid be able to keep the committee heads from overextending on prudent actions, to open themselves up to attack? How will the Republicans relationship with Bush be like now? Will Bush and/or the Republicans be able to court some of the more conservative Democrats? How will the Democrats handle criticism from the Republican and/or Conservative talk show host, who now don’t have to worry about defending an administration. For that matter handle criticism from Independent radio talk show hosts too, being Independent they can easily attack any administration. Interesting, interesting, interesting.

Well its 12-14 months before the '08 election starts to heat up, and all eyes are on Congress, to some extent the President, but I think a lot more on Congress. If the Democrats really try to keep the far-left at bay, and work well with fairly moderate conservatives and liberals, I think they will keep control, but doing that can cause itself to collopes. The Republicans had a bit of that, themselves. Well not to mention another crisis can blind-side us at anytime and completely change the game.

Frankly as far as the abortion issue goes, prolife will really gain a lot of momentum if the movement gains a hold of a decent sized group in both parties. Then that vote cannot be taken for granted, and a more substantive action will be required to really court the vote.

 

[OriginalJS]

P.S. – Two Religious Milestones – With the election of Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, Congress has its first Muslim representative. Second, if the Democrats take control of the Senate, as now appears likely, they will likely elect a Mormon, Harry Reid of Nevada, as the leader. Given that the Church of Latter Day Saints used to be viewed by many Christians as heretical, it’s a sign of how far Mormons have come that Reid’s faith appears to be a non-issue.

I agree, politically, religion has become a non-issue in many respects, except where politicians manipulate it to get votes. I didn’t know until now that Harry Reid is Mormon and frankly I guess I don’t care.

 

[OriginalJS]

Frankly as far as the abortion issue goes, prolife will really gain a lot of momentum if the movement gains a hold of a decent sized group in both parties. Then that vote cannot be taken for granted, and a more substantive action will be required to really court the vote.

Well, maybe, but it sure took, as Bush said, “a thumpin” this time.

 

[jman507]

Well, maybe, but it sure took, as Bush said, “a thumpin” this time.

No, it really takes some time to really see how stuff pans out. As I said when it comes to politics its a game of strategy. When it comes to the overall picture a loss can be a win, and a win can be a loss. It really takes some time to see how it pans out. In chess one can think he’s going in for a check, but the other player could really have understood that, and players the other into making foolish moves, exploits his disregard for defence, and makes a surprise checkmate.

Overall it seemed that the Democrats tried to be more conservative than the Republicans. There was even some support for politicians who were pro-life, or didn’t try to play up pro-choice. That’s either a net plus or natural, but not a net negative vote. It might turn into a plus for the pro-choice, for a couple years, but if the momentum of the will of the people are towards pro-life, the typical politician will move towards pro-life.

The ballet initiatives really seemed to favor the pro-life group. S.D. only lost by 10%, that really took the most extreme position and still did well. More initiatives to rule against gay marriage passed. The Missouri bill just barely passed, even with Micheal J. Fox’s commercial, its harder to fight against an emotional appeal than it is a logical one. Once the argument really got going it closed the gap by quite a lot. I’m not sitting here saying everything is rosy, but there is a lot to be encouraged about, as well as concerned. Its not a fight that is going to be finished in a few years. It’s going to take a long long time to fight, in fact it probably will last as long as we live.

In the end, its good to remember, typcially you don’t win football games by throwing bombs up for grabs to make huge games, but going after first downs, and occasionally finding a big hole to make a big gain. In this fight, its also not important to win, but to be faithful and keep fighting, someone else will come to finish off for the Big Win.

 

[harinkj]

I agree, politically, religion has become a non-issue in many respects, except where politicians manipulate it to get votes. I didn’t know until now that Harry Reid is Mormon and frankly I guess I don’t care.

Gov. Romney of Mass. is a Mormon isn’t he? And he is running for President. I don’t think religion is an issue now. But color sure is. Look at the Tenn. Senate race.

• Kathie :bowdown:

 

[gam197]

We have the first democrat Muslim in Minnesota.

Democrat Harry Reid stopped parental notification bill in August.

WASHINGTON (August 14, 2006) – Both houses of Congress have passed bills to protect the rights of parents to be notified before an abortion is performed on a minor daughter – but Senate Democratic leaders, led by Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nv.), have thrown up an extraordinary procedural obstacle in an attempt to prevent the bill from becoming law during the final weeks of the 109th Congress…from National Right To Life

nrlc.org/Federal/CCPA/DemsBlockProgress.html