Today's Washington Post cites a Pew survey indicating that the Republican party is losing favor among religious voters.
The number of people who consider the GOP friendly to religion dropped from 55 percent to 47 percent _ with a 14-point drop among white evangelical conservatives and an 11-point drop among white Catholics, according to the poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
While this might sound like good news for Democrats, it's not really- at least not yet. We haven't gained the confidence of religious voters.
Only a fourth, 26 percent, considered the Democratic Party friendly to religion _ about the same as last year.
Things have changed mightily since Bush took office and began his long series of screwups and lies. He won 78% of the votes from white evangelicals, and 56% of white Roman Catholics in 2004.
"The Republicans had done a good job of mobilizing those two groups in 2004 and that may be cooling a bit now," said Scott Keeter of the Pew Research Center said, referring to white evangelicals and white Catholics
The religious are beginning to see the light with regard to lies of Republicans who have cynically manipulated them. People like George Allen, who profess to the Right to Life agenda, but privately invest in "Plan B" drug stock, which many Right to Lifers oppose.
The religious right is dissatisfied. They've been waiting for decades to overturn Roe, and even with a one-party government, it still hasn't happened. The "compassionate conservative" schtick has largely failed, and Bushco demonstrated gross incompetence and indifference that would outrage anyone with an ounce of compassion(as in the inhumane negligence in responding to the Katrina disaster). I'm hopeful that everyone is realizing that the evangelical imagery that peppers Bushco's rhetoric is just a lot of empty words.
I'm not sure whether Dems could ever affect a net gain among right-wing evangelicals and conservative Roman Catholics, or if we would want to; they have a litmus test on social issues like abortion and gay rights that Dems won't concede to pass.
But what about more socially progressive religious folks? The problem with them is that they are not a unified voting block like the religious right have been. Now that it looks like the solidarity of the religious right block is beginning to break down, Dems may be able to gain advantage.
I think this is especially good news for the kind of moderate Democrats who've been succeeding in Virginia- like Warner, Kaine, and (hopefully)Webb. We need capable leaders like these, who can work cooperatively and forge pragmatic solutions to the issues we face today.