Culture Wars, Evangelicals, and Political Power

[Joanne98]

It would be nice if conservative White evangelicals called off the Culture Wars that they started and continue to aggressively pursue. It would be even nicer if liberal (and even some progressive) pundits stopped prematurely announcing the end of the Culture Wars and the demise of the Christian Right. Neither is likely to happen any time soon.

What progressives need to do is convince centrist Democratic Party honchos to end their quixotic quest for “values voters” among the rank and pew of conservative evangelical and Roman Catholic voters by sounding a rhetorical retreat on social issues such as reproductive justice and LGBTQ equity. That’s not exactly what the Obama campaign did, but it is what centrist Democratic Party consultants and their anti-abortion evangelical allies advocated. Whether the rhetorical retreat turns into a policy retreat remains to be seen.

Some Democratic political wonks who study polls and electoral outcomes have been selling, wittingly or unwittingly, a dubious narrative about the role of White evangelicals for several years now. It is time to take a close look at their product. There is convincing evidence that over the past 20 years a small percentage of White Christian evangelicals are swing voters when the Democratic Party stakes out clear and strong stands concerning peace, a fair economy, political corruption, a clean environment, and other issues that most Christians see as “moral values.” Many of these swing voters, however, remain rigid in their opposition to abortion and gay rights.

Instead of agreeing to disagree in a principled way on these hot button social issues, since 2004 we have seen what Reverend Daniel Schultz (blogging online as “pastordan” of Street Prophets) calls “the endless parade of Religious-Industrial Complex consultants and activists who tell us that Rick Warren is the epitome of the ‘moderate Evangelical’ that Democrats should be working to attract.” Warren may have an avuncular public persona, but he is hardly a progressive or even a progressive ally. Indeed, journalist Sarah Posner recently noted for example, that “Warren has argued that homosexuality disproves evolution and has compared prochoice advocates to Holocaust deniers.” As progressives we should be reaching out to people of faith, including evangelicals, but we need clearer criteria for those with whom we seek to work.

What Actually Happened?

Looking at early exit poll data, Damon Linker of The New Republic observed that in terms of “the roughly 26 percent of Americans who describe themselves as white evangelical/born again Protestants,” the efforts of “Obama, who aggressively courted these voters with religious appeals…must be judged a disappointment.” And Linker adds that a “glance at Obama’s success at wooing white Catholic voters, who make up roughly 19 percent of the electorate, reveals results only slightly less sobering.” His caution holds up when we look at some more pre- and post-election data.

The God Gaps: 2000-2008

CHARTS AT LINK>>>
http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v23n4/culture_war_2008.html

[EFerrari]

1. "Culture wars" = "social conservatism" = "discrimination we put up with".

That's our national dog whistle, right there.

[ellacott]

2. I don't think it should be judged a disappointment

He did get more of those demos than Kerry. It was a lot but it looks like it was in the right direction.

I think it's important to try and reach those groups. If you could show them how they've been used by the Repubs then they may turn away from them in greater numbers.