How many fundies are there in this country anyway and is the fundie vote that important?

[renie408]

This has been bugging me for awhile. Is the fundie vote really so important that you would select a Sarah Palin as your running mate to appeal to them? You know like hell she won't appeal to the majority of women, no matter what Nancy Pfotenhauer says. McCain's people can claim all day long that women are energized; I am a woman, I know better. Fundies are no friends of women. Aren't there more moderates than fundies? Wouldn't it have been a lot smarter to try to appeal to them? This just seems so stupid to me. I am certainly no McCain lover, but I didn't think he was out and out stupid.

[Epiphany4z]

1. I don't think it is just

fundie that vote but the money the big wigs are tossing him with this pick....He sold his soul..so to speak.

[BPAW]

2. Too damn many

As a transplanted northerner in the Heart of Dixie, there are too damn many fundies (especially here) for my taste. I don't think a Republican can win without them, as they are now the base of the party. The days of fiscal conservatives are gone, replaced by social conservatives dressed in moderate clothing.

And the nation suffers for it.

[Az]

3. The GOP died after Nixon

It was not until the NeoCons wooed the religious right to back Reagan that the GOP had a chance. Since the arrival of the religious right the GOP has essentially dominated the presidential race.

If you remove the religious right from the equation the GOP only has about 35% of the voting population locked up. Fundamentalists did not traditionally vote their religion. In fact they tended to stay out of politics due to fear that it would taint their faith. Politics is the art of compromise while their faith is a fixed thing.

So yeah... its a big deal. We can't woo them to our side. Instead we should work on reminding them how they keep getting burned by the GOP and politics in general. Put them back to sleep as a voting block. And let the GOP die the death it was supposed to die decades ago.

[renie408]

4. I can do that. It's just that I live in what would be considered the heart of Fundieville

and I don't know any. Seriously. None. There are a couple of kids that go to school with my son that I would consider fundies. Everybody else are Sunday christians, not serious fundies. It just makes me wonder how many people really are.

[cali]

5. um, you can't win without your base. period. the problem is you can't

win without moderates either. McCain clearly felt it was more important to get the base solidly behind him and to try and cast Palin as a "maverick reformer". Pretty simple if deeply flawed plan.

[Mimosa]

6. I object to the word Fundie (and can answer the question)

I'm a non-practicing but believing Catholic. My SO is Buddhist. I'm spiritually inclined so over many years I've known many people who practice many faiths. I've even been initiated as a voudoun mambo.

I do not believe in intolerantly mocking any religious people. I'd object to a Sikh being called a towelhead, for example.

The term fundies on DU is generally used to refer to evangelical Christians. Yes, I've known a few in both NOLA and ATL and generally have little in common with them culturally or religiously. I think there are far less evangelical christians who stay in the enthusiastic doctrinal born again mode than many imagine. In their quest for power and influence, preachers such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robinson and Rick Warren have been very successful in convincing politicians that the evangelicals numbers are larger than they are.

I think many conservatives who aren't particularly religious aren't single issue voters. (I'm a classic Jeffersonian liberal and I am not a single issue voter.) Anyhow what happens is that some issues tend to group together. I may be a liberal but I also support 2nd amendment rights as well as charter schools. So do social conservatives. But the not particularly religious might vote for a candidate whose cluster happens to include being adamantly pro-life because of other issues. That's how people such as Louisiana's Senator David Vitter got into office.

Personally I like Louisiana's Governor Bobby Jindal a lot. He was my congressman. He's a genius and he's an effective leader and governor. He is also a pro-life Catholic (btw, Hindu doctrine is also pro-life). But because of other factors that one issue would not stop me from quite happily voting for him.

Obama's acceptance speech was remarkably adept in his outreach to the cluster voters. Many conservative voters have voted against their own interests for fear of big government.

[renie408]

7. I am not talking about them. I am literally talking about fundamentalists.

I am not talking about your average spiritual christian. I am talking about the ones who think that banning all birth control is a good idea and that think that abortion in all cases, including rape, incest and the health of the mother, should be banned. What do you call those people other than fundamentalist?

[Mimosa]

8. Darn, I don't know

Renie, I know there are some of them out there but not as many as some DU people think.

BTW the Sarah Palin mini-series is very good at exposing hypocrisy of all kinds! LOL