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Surprise! Evangelicals Are THE Key Voting Block in 2004 11/3/2004 Bush courted, Kerry dismissed.
Evangelicals voted in force in this year's election, securing the presidency for George W. Bush, granting parents in Florida the right to be notified before their minor daughter's abortion, and passing marriage protections laws in every state they were offered - even liberal Oregon. Moral values topped the list of priorities for many voters, rising even above the war in Iraq and the economy, as the key motivating factor. President Bush knows his strongest base, who they are and what drives them. Perhaps this is because, as many Evangelicals and conservative Catholics can relate, he is one of us. Of the prominent battleground state of Ohio, which Sens. Kerry and Edwards refuse to accept as a loss, ABC News' Mark Halpern reported, "Evangelicals voted overwhelmingly for Bush in Ohio, 70 percent to 30 percent for Kerry." Not only in Ohio, he stated, but all across the country, did Bush win a large majority of evangelical support. While "soccer moms" could never be verified as a significant, or lasting, voting block, there is no denying that Evangelicals and conservative Catholics make up a sizable portion of America, spanning the spectrum of other blocks such as African-Americans and Hispanics. This revelation could change the face of future campaigns. Brian Williams of MSNBC News stated, "White evangelical voters kept their promise to get out the vote, representing one in five voters today." But this overlooks a fundamental reality - many African Americans are also Evangelical. In fact, black pastors stepped to the forefront to fiercely back marriage-protection initiatives. And now Democrats are facing the harsh reality that dismissing, and even belittling, Evangelicals' deeply held beliefs may not be a smart tactic for winning national elections. As the results came rolling in on election night, NBC's Tom Brokaw raised this with former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell. Brokaw noted that every time he talks with Evangelicals they express the feeling that they're not taken seriously by the Democratic Party, that they're mocked, even belittled. George Mitchell confessed, "That's true of some Democrats but not all." Implying that it merely has to do with packaging, he said, "The question is how to appeal to them that makes sense to the party and the country." Looking at the huge swatch of red covering election maps of the country, Mitchell conceded that Democrats cannot win by "being a regional party." He acknowledged that that party is lacking any kind of national base. "You have to be a national party to compete in national elections," he noted. Faith played an extraordinary role in this election, remarked Joe Scarborough, former congressman and political analyst for MSNBC. President Bush is a man of faith; Sen. Kerry just doesn't get it. "He thinks by saying he was an altar boy, he covered it," Joe said. This reflects the current culture war. It is between those who believe in God and recognize that morality is crucial to a successful life and functioning society, and those who reject absolutes, whether in the form of virtue or a Supreme Being to Whom we must answer. Now that both political parties recognize that Evangelicals and conservative Catholics are a formidable force that should not be ignored, we must be very careful. Shrewd politicians will look for ways to peel off our votes and to woo compromise on issues about which we have no right to bargain - such as the right for the most vulnerable to live. A terrible warning comes in the win of California's Proposition 71, which approved $3 billion for unethical embryonic stem-cell research. This could not have passed without the support of many Evangelicals and Catholics. Not only is it a financial boondoggle that grants biotech insiders the right to secretly spend all that money without accountability, but the basis of the initiative is the constitutional right to create human embryos (even through cloning) to experiment upon and kill. Clearly, there is work to be done within our house. First, we must ensure that Evangelicals remain faithful in our civic duty to vote for people who, as nearly as possible, reflect Biblical views. Second, we must teach our people how righteousness is worked out in public policy. Evangelicals and conservative Catholics distinguish ourselves from other special interest groups in that we do not seek our own advancement or political power; we want to see virtue respected so the people may rejoice. Our newly exercised muscle must be used wisely, only in God's service.
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