The white Evangelical community. Shall I say more? When Kerry was running back in 2004, I was taking American Government and my teacher had mused aloud wondering whether or not John Kerry would reach out to the Evangelicals. Of course Kerry never did, and it was shown in the margins Bush had won Evangelicals by, 78-21. Tipping Ohio most assuredly in Bush's favor, although you can argue that a Gay marriage proposal that was on the ballot that election year turned out faith-based voters with a vengeance. BUT to go with my story we shall ignore that :).
Now where was I? Right, faith-based voters. So back before Kerry we had Gore, who also lost the white Evangelical vote 68-30.
Everyone talks about how historic Obama's campaign is, I argue that it is historic in EVERY way. Earlier this month Obama met with some 30 Religious leaders of different faiths- from evangelical to main line. And what pundits have found is that when Obama speaks to you personally, whether it be in a rally or a lunch date, people leave- if not liking him- not hating him. The reason why Bush won his second term was because he rallied the base, he got Evangelicals to come out of the woodworks and vote for possibly the first time in their lives. But back in 2004, Kerry was portrayed as a wide-eyed Liberal whose only point in life was flicking God off and advocating mass abortion! What has been found in this election is that those tactics don't work, at least not so far. Obama does not shy away from his faith, or talking about his faith for that matter.
Now the question is will Obama get the Evangelical vote, hell no! (excuse the pun :P). But will an Obama presidency be regarded as a mortal threat to the Evangelicals most deeply held beliefs? Again, hell no! So in conclusion I argue that the most effective way to stop the opposition, is to lower the temp, in effect neutralizing the Republican arsenal "Ok don't vote for me, but you have nothing to fear from me." And so far, Obama seems to be doing pretty well with this tack, so much so that is has gotten James Dobson, head of the Christian Group Focus on the Family and one of the most influential voices in the evangelical community, to come out and denounce Obama on his "fruitcake" interpretation on the Constitution.
3 comments:
interesting.
thanks.
its amazing how this years elections is heavily religiously based. I was taking a religion and politics class last semester, and we mainly read historic documents of political leaders tying religion and politics as well as the current candidates for office (of course, before most of them dropped out). It's amazing how much is at 'stake' when religion and politics intersect. It becomes a battle of who can prove that their politics is guided through religion (or how not involved it is). The post was good. :) keep it up.
Isn't it ironic though, if you really think about it, with the constitution based on separation of church and state- our politicians can NOT win without appealing to faith-based voters. And I say appealing when I really mean pandering.
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