Res Publica 2005

To become a majority party, Democrats have to build stronger ties of support among poor white Protestants in the South and border states, urban Catholics in the Midwestern ones, and Hispanic immigrants in the West. Messages perceived as hostile to religion are not going to reach any of those groups.

In politics demography tends to drive ideas. For this reason alone, the turn toward religion that can be seen in the speeches by Kerry and Obama are more than just a tactical response to the Bush administration's open embrace of conservative religious voters. Although neither Kerry or Obama are from the South, they are in line with the direction established for the party by Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, politicians who had an instinctive feel for both faith and liberal political positions.

The United States, for better or worse, remains a religious country. No party can be a majority party unless it acknowledges that fact.

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# posted by Knitting a Conundrum @ 6:41 AM