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Only Regular Churchgoers Maintain Republican Support
The Republican Party is still popular among regular churchgoers, but that's about it, according to the Gallup poll released yesterday.
Since George W. Bush became president in 2001, the Republican Party has maintained its support only among frequent churchgoers. Among 13 categories, the party has lost close to 10 percent of the "least observant" and 6 percent of occasional churchgoers.
Pundits are pulling out the knives, the doomsday metaphors--and the calculators.
"The findings confirm growing disenchantment with a party that is viewed as belonging primarily to older white males, despite the GOP's having selected a hip-hop-friendly African-American to lead them," says Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker.
Over at Spiritual Politics, Mark Silk points out that the "pretty observant" was precisely the demographic the Democrats were aiming at during the November presidential election. (They're still not having much luck with the more devout, he notes).
Silk crunches some numbers and comes up with this analysis: "Factoring out the non-identifiers, this means that the Democratic advantage among the least observant nearly tripled, jumping 21 points from 51-38 to 63-29; while among the pretty frequent attenders, the Dems have turned a three point deficit (43-46) into a 12 point advantage (52-40). "
By
Jacqueline L. Salmon
|
May 20, 2009; 11:00 AM ET
| Category:
God in Government
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Posted by: mdenny1 | May 20, 2009 4:33 PM
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Whatever happened to the SEPARATION of church and state?
Speaking as a republican (albeit a moderate) since the 1980 election, the party increasing relied on the catholic and evangelical vote on the single litmus test issue of abortion to win national elections. It was aided and abetted by various heirarchy within both the conservative evangelical and catholic ranks.
The latest result for the party was an incompetent like George W. Bush running the country for eight years. Membership in the catholic church has waned as well and part of the reason is that any thinking person resents being threatened and brow beaten from the pulpit around every election to vote AGAINST the candidate who is pro-choice.
Republicans really need to get their act together for the next election cycle. The democrats and our country need a stronger republican party to balance one party rule.
Hopefully, we have learned our lesson and will get back to the vision of our forefathers; more limited federal govt., stronger state and local governments and a newfound respect for the document that created the greatest country the world has ever known; THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION!
Posted by: stevestegman | May 20, 2009 3:00 PM
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The absolutely meanest fellow professor that I EVER knew - - - was known for never missing Sunday Mass.
Posted by: lufrank1 | May 20, 2009 2:23 PM
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As your paper has reported recently, right wing Christian voters support the use of torture and the use of scripture verses to endorse an unnecessary war. If they able to contort their minds to justify these violent acts as something Jesus would do, we need to take that as a warning. Christians who can justify torture and war will easily justify other means of violence to fulfil their political goals. America needs to understand that the Christian right has an agenda is to bring about a violent end to the world. Everything they say or do is framed around this goal. Is it wise to give them political power?