Democrats woo evangelicals: "disaffected with Republican leadership and increasingly up for grabs"

[DeepModem Mom]

CNN: June 11, 2008
Analysis: Democrats woo disaffected evangelicals
By Rebecca Sinderbrand

....On Tuesday night, a few blocks from the White House, the Matthew 25 PAC held its inaugural fundraising event, a $1,000-a-head reception featuring Democratic luminaries such as Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and Mike McCurry, a White House spokesman under President Clinton. Matthew 25 has long been a touchstone chapter for moderate and liberal Christians, who say the passage -- "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink" -- signals their focus on social justice concerns over hot-button cultural issues.

The group's stated mission: to attract financial support from moderate evangelicals, Catholics, Protestants and Hispanic Catholics committed to electing Sen. Barack Obama president. It will launch ad campaigns in Christian media, send surrogates onto network and cable news, and push back on e-mail rumors that suggest that Obama is not a Christian, organizers said. Matthew 25 will focus its efforts on traditional presidential battlegrounds and a new category of swing states: traditional red states, some trending purple, with significant Christian populations likely to be receptive to Obama's candidacy....

***

The success of the Matthew 25 PAC would mark a sea change in the electoral landscape, unprecedented but not a bolt from the blue. Polls have showed that evangelicals, following national trends, are disaffected with Republican leadership and increasingly up for grabs.
The organizer of the Matthew 25 effort, Mara Vanderslice, led the religious outreach for the Democratic presidential ticket in 2004 and -- perhaps more troubling to the GOP -- has done similar, and successful, work for winning Democrats in reliably red states and battlegrounds, such as Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. Vanderslice hopes the group will become a political mainstay, backing candidates at every level of government. This year, it has just one mission: supporting Obama's presidential bid.

This new energy has not been matched among conservatives. Same-sex marriage has galvanized some issues-motivated activists, but the Republican standard-bearer has yet to galvanize longtime evangelical foot soldiers this campaign season....

In a mirror image of the Generation Joshua effort that backed Bush four years ago, the Obama campaign is planning the Joshua Generation Project. The program, named after a biblical reference Obama used on the campaign trail, will include blogs, concerts and house parties. The name is drawn from the biblical account of how Joshua's generation, which followed the one that fled Egypt with Moses, led the Israelites into the Promised Land. The goal? To capitalize on an undercurrent of excitement over Obama's candidacy that has begun to become apparent among young evangelicals, including those attending Christian colleges and universities....

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/11/dems.evangelicals/index.html

[saracat]

1. I cannot get on board with this. This is revolting. I have stood for seperation

of Church and State forever. Wooing these people is just wrong.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

8. What? So they shouldn't be allowed to vote?

Evangelicals are going to exercise their right to vote in November. They question is, do you want them voting with us or against us?

[saracat]

9. I find "pandering" to this section of the voters disgusting. The Obama Campaign has stated

it will NOT reach out to the disaffected wome votwers but it WILL reach out to the evangelicals? I find this movement just creepy. The idea of the Joshua generation in particular offends me. What about all the other religions then? Don't they count? What about Wiccans, and Buddists? What about athiests? Why do we kiss fundie butt at the expense of all others and promote a group that despises gays and women?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

10. Who said the Obama campaign won't reach out to any of the groups you mention?

He who gets the most votes wins the election. I'm pretty sure the Obama people know this. They're not going to leave any votes on the table for McCain to scoop up by default.

[KittyWampus]

11. Let's emphasize the SOCIAL JUSTICE aspect. These are people who want to do good works

for their fellow citizens.

It says that in the OP.

Some DU'ers just like to find fault.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

12. Let's not forget CREATION CARE (aka "Environmentalism")

A significant number of evangelicals take the stewardship of creation quite seriously.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

14. You sound bitter.

Very, very bitter.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

26. The "disaffected" women voters will vote for McCain out of spite.

And Wiccans and Buddhists make up a tiny percentage of the population versus evangelicals, many of whom are not of the Falwell/Robertson stripe.

[Alter Ego]

15. Oh for the love of Christ.

Talking to them != pandering to them or merging church and state.

Evangelicals who are not single-issue voters can be reached--and for years the Democratic Party has not bothered to try. Now that they do you want them to stop?

[QueenOfCalifornia]

27. I so agree with you

I want zero to do with these people. I do not even want their vote.

NO JESUS CAMP.

NO FLAT DADDY BUSH.

NO PRAYER IN SCHOOLS.

NO CROSS ON MY HILL.

NO. NO. NO.

[mamalone]

29. I really don't understand

how the mere act of a candidate speaking to voters who identify themselves as within a certain religious belief system violates the separation of church and state. If you take this line of thought its logical conclusion then the only candidates who would be eligible for office would be those devoid of any church affiliation or even spiritual belief system of their own. Since absence of belief is in truth a belief system of its own, no one would be eligible. Separation of church and state in no way prohibits the act of a leader dialogging with people who happen to hold a certain set of spiritual beliefs, or even church affiliation.



editing to correct html

[krabigirl]

32. Totally agree with you.

[RainDog]

2. the push back is definitely needed

for all the right wingers who think Obama is the anti-christ or muslim, or fill in their fear blank.

the southern baptists have already decided Obama is too liberal and want McCain to woo them with a move toward the right. they will never vote for a democrat b/c of the democratic platform.

because I refuse to hate gay people or define them as deviant or to say they shouldn't have civil/equal rights.

I know this religious outreach is part of who Obama is as a person and candidate. I also know he's a constitutional scholar, and I expect him to uphold the separation clause. No person has ever won the white house without religious credentials, unfortunately.

if Obama brings evangelicals to the democratic party on issues of social justice, that will be a good thing. we're so used to the republicans and theocrats as examples of religious belief, it's hard to be open to the idea of evangelicals since they have shown intolerance and prejudice against parts of the base of the democratic party.

I guess we'll see how this all shakes out.

[PoliticalAmazon]

3. IMO, When Ronald Reagan bent knee to the religous right....

he created a monster of leviathan proportions. It is a monster we will be fighting for decades.

[Cha]

17. Yeah, he did..but his was all for slime and hypocricy.

And, we know that's not what Obama's about.

[PoliticalAmazon]

18. There is a danger in letting the RR set a political party's agend....

We should be able to learn from the GOP's mistakes and not have to learn the hard way ourselves.

[Cha]

20. I know where you're coming from but I'm

not seeing it that way. Obama likes to reach out and he is religious.

Not me but they're are religious people out there who don't condone this war and killing in the name of bush.

[PoliticalAmazon]

21. I fear it will be like going to pet a cute baby-bear, only to end up having to deal with it's mom...

The RR has the capability of becoming an important voting bloc to the Dems, just like they did the GOP. If that occurs, they will be setting the agenda for our Party on certain issues, just like the pro-Israel groups in the U.S. now pretty much dictate the Dems' foregn policy with Israel and other Middle Eastern powers.

I think it is admirable to try to bring them into our Big Tent, but once in there they are going to think they can dictate whih people can be in our Big Tent. They turned the GOP, which was at the time Reagan bent over for the RR, really good about not invading the privacy of Americans. NOw the GOP uses abolishing gay rights as a way to placate its base.

Just my thoughts on this. I appreciate your thoughts, too.

[Cha]

23. Oh yeah, in that respect you'd be right..

they just have to make it clear.."NO DICTATING" "You can join our tent if you like the facts..but, no religion involved". And big foot put down!

[PoliticalAmazon]

25. The problem is this: if the Dems are successful in their outreach to the RR voters...

that means that there will be a sizeable voting block of RR voters in the Democratic Party. Once this occurs, the RR voters WILL play a role (and the size of the role will be in direct proportion to the size of the RR voing bloc) in setting the DNC's agenda and strategy because, for the DNC to keep the RR voters, they will have to respond to their beliefs and political preferences.

So, even if the RR voters don't intend to set the DNC's agenda and strategy (and it is highly likely that they WILL want to influence, as much as they can, the DNC's agenda/strategy), and even if the DNC plans to NOT be influenced by the RR voters, the RR voters will, nonetheless, influence the DNC's agenda/strategy just because they are a bloc of voters with specific needs and demands and, for the DNC to keep their votes, they will have to aquiesce to the RR voters' agenda.

We have all seen how the RR voters are very intolerant of any deviation from their fundamentalist religious views, and will use their power as a voting bloc to strong-arm a political party into following their agenda.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the issue. The RR came to power through the Reagan administration during my life, and it's been kind of a focus of my political activism. We cannot underestimate the changes they can bring to a political party. The GOP did, and they have paid the price as the RR has yanked them around by the short hairs for decades now.

[Douglas Carpenter]

30. many Evangelicals cannot be described as the religious right

Most black and hispanic Evangelicals have been voting Democratic all along. Even in their worse year 2004, slightly more than 20% of white Evangelicals voted for John Kerry.

no one is suggesting that the Democratic Party reach out to the religious right -- simply to Evangelicals many of whom would be sympathetic to the compassionate and anti-war message and environmental message of the Democratic Party.

[PoliticalAmazon]

34. I think we have an issue of semantics here....

Nonetheless, a bloc of voters has the power to influence the agenda/strategies of a political party, and the magnitude of the power is directly proportional to the size of the voting bloc.

I think the RR and evangelicals have the same influence. They have strong religious beliefs and, for the most part, want their government to reflect those beliefs.

We all saw the power of the evangelicals in the Huckabee primary in Iowa. A political party will sit up and notice a group when they drive the outcome of an election. The political party is then forced to modify their goals/agenda if they want to keep that election-deciding voting bloc voting for their party.

The same can be said for environmentalists or any other issue-oriented group that votes based on their beliefs of what is right for our country.

[Douglas Carpenter]

35. the largest progressive Evangelical organization, Sojourners is actually very left-wing

They are probably closer to Dennis Kucinich's positions than to Sen. Obama's.

In June of 2006 Sen. Obama, Sen. Clinton and Gov. Dean spoke at their conference in Washington, D.C. with Sen. Obama delivering their keynote address - link to 'Call to Renewal' Keynote Address delivered by Sen. Obama in June of 2006:

http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060628-call_to_renewal/index.php


“They gave Obama thunderous applause when he proclaimed his support for separation of church and state and giving teenagers access to contraception." link:
http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/nation/14923089.htm

Sojourners are actually fairly left-wing on especially on foreign policy and economic issues.


link for Sojourners:


http://www.sojo.net /

link for Sojourners Magazine:


http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.home

Interview on Democracy Now with Rev. Jim Wallis (founder and leader of Sojourners) - link:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/26/1355204

_____________


.

[mamalone]

28. Talking to them doesn't equate letting them set the party's agenda.

I fail to understand why people get so upset about this.

I mean didn't we applaud Obama saying that he would be willing to talk to enemy leaders? Don't we all agree that that is a wise and prudent thing to do? Didn't we all think the repubs were ridiculous and regressive for refusing to dialog with governments and leaders just because we didn't agree with them? Why then is it all of a sudden an evil thing for him to talk to evangelical voters? We may have different values and different viewpoints, but we are all Americans and he is after all running to be the leader of all Americans. Their vote counts just the same as ours... if we disregard even one of their votes, which then goes to McCain- it negates one of our votes. I don't want that to happen, do you?

Obama has incredible interpersonal and communicative skills. Trust him to be able to dialog without giving away the store.

[krabigirl]

33. Really? You think they'll just be happy that he's talking to them, and won't want to set his agenda?

[Douglas Carpenter]

4. Sen. Obama has a long standing positive relationship with progressive Evangelicals

He was the keynote speaker at the "Call to Renewal Conference" sponsored by the progressive-Evangelical organization, Sojourners in 2006:

http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060628-call_to_renewal/index.php

[PoliticalAmazon]

5. Believe it or not, the environment is a way to connect with the RR...

I'm not in favor of the Democratic Party courting the RR because, IMO, it destroyed the Republican Party by empowering religious demagogues to set the party's agenda.

However, that said, the one way that Dems can attract GOPers is on environmental issues. There has been a sharp shift in the RR regarding the environment. For some reason, they have started paying attention to the Bible's instructions to be good stewards of the land. This is something the GOP cannot, and will not, support.

[Cha]

24. Yeah, the Environment is the way to connect

with all kinds of peeps..and mccain isn't for it if there's no regulation on corporations.

[sufrommich]

6. If I recall correctly.Jimmy Carter did well with

evangelicals,I think it's a good idea to make the attempt to get their vote.I have every confidence that Obama will try to reach them on our terms.

[Douglas Carpenter]

7. many if not most black and hispanic Evangelicals have long, long been Democrats

there is nothing intrinsic that requires Evangelicals to be right-wing Republicans.

I have talked to numerous Evangelicals who have long resented and rejected the dogma of the religious right.

Many Evangelicals whether black, white, hispanic or whatever would almost naturally be progressive Democrats. Until the rise of the religious right in the late 70's and early 80's many were. Even in 2004 20% of white Evangelicals voted for John Kerry. There is no reason whatsoever that could not be increased to at least 40%.

[sufrommich]

13. These are interesting times....

I do wonder if more evangelicals are growing tired of the increasingly negative connotations attached to their religion.I'm not a religious person myself,and frankly,the one evangelical I do know still defends Bush.I do hope we are seeing a rejection of evangelicals as a right wing force.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

16. Mara Vanderslice...

The Director of Matthew 25 (from the OP), features prominently in the book "The Party Faithful" where author Amy Sullivan (herself a liberal Christian) explores how the Democratic Party left evangelical voters ripe for the picking by Republicans. The Kerry campaign, for all of its clumsiness on this issue (the book goes into excrutiating detail on this subject), still got nearly 40$ of the evangelical vote. In the past four years, the "New Evangelicals" have started making their voices heard, and they're not singing from the conservative hymnal -- at least not all the time.

[OzarkDem]

19. But they still don't have a plan for wooing more women voters?

Their first major outreach is to evangelicals while the first GOP outreach is to women voters.

Based on some of the studies I've seen, apparently the Obama campaign and DNC are willing to forgo outreach to women over 30, believing younger women and core Dem women added to evangelicals will make up for the loss.

Not a good strategy. I thought we were going to have a smart campaign this time.

[Douglas Carpenter]

22. Obama has moved into double-digit leads over McCain in two new polls of women voters

so far it appears that they are doing pretty well with woman voters:

"WASHINGTON — Barack Obama has moved into double-digit leads over Republican John McCain in two new polls of women voters, suggesting he is drawing support from women who once backed Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Obama led McCain 51%-38% in Gallup polling of 2,263 registered female voters June 5-9. The 13-percentage-point lead among women was up from 5 points the previous week, before the Democratic nomination ended. Obama now matches Clinton's performance against McCain, Gallup said Wednesday.


The Gallup results mirrored Obama's 52%-39% lead among women in a Rasmussen Reports poll of 3,000 likely voters June 8-10. The polls' margins of error are +/— 2 to 3 percentage points. Clinton on June 4 signaled her intent to withdraw and officially suspended her campaign Saturday. Some of her supporters said they would never vote for Obama, and one man, Ed Hale, started a website for former Clinton supporters now backing McCain."

link:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-06-11-womenvoters_N.htm

[krabigirl]

31. Ugh...all I can say.