Posting by Frank James at 11:57 am CDT
The Gallup Poll organization has a report out today which suggests that a wise strategy for Republicans hoping to keep control of the House would be to encourage regular church goers to go the polls on election day, so long as they’re not black.
Recent Gallup polling indicates that what I’ll call the church gap between Republicans and Democrats hasn’t lessened, with registered voters who describe themselves as regular churchgoers being much more likely to vote Republican than less frequent churchgoers who tend to be Democrats.
The one exception, of course, would be African-Americans, the Democratic party’s most loyal voters even though they are also among the Americans most devoted to churches. Gallup does see some tendency among the most church-going blacks towards Republican, that’s not big enough to offset the general trend.
In 2000 Karl Rove, the president’s chief political advisor, successfully boosted turnout among white religious voters in precincts in important, electoral-vote rich states like Ohio which helped President Bush win.
Gallup’s findings seem to say that House Republicans should try to emulate that strategy. Here’s a key section from the Gallup report:
Republican strategy in past elections has in part focused on promoting turnout among religious white voters who have -- as evidenced by these data -- a strong, preexisting tendency toward voting for a Republican.
This group is highly sensitive to social policy issues relating to morals and values, thus providing the opportunity for the GOP party and individual Republican candidates to campaign on the theme that Democratic opponents would be more likely to enact laws or make changes that would encourage what those who are highly religious would consider to be immoral or anti-religious behavior.
The recent Republican efforts to pass laws in the House and Senate on such issues as embryonic stem cell research and same-sex marriage can be seen as part of the continuing campaign strategy to highlight these differences between the parties. It remains to be seen whether or not this group of religious whites will in fact turn out in strong enough numbers this fall to help the GOP maintain control of Congress.
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Comments
Let's have a big group hug with the Council of Conservative Citizens.
No,Macaca,you're not invited.
Posted by: Raving Loon | August 30, 2006 11:24 AM
How very Christian of Mr. Rove and the republican party. Boy that religion really sells.
I just wish if you were going to claim to be religious...you would act so.
Does this make Mr.Rove the 13th apostle.
Posted by: bill r. | August 30, 2006 11:28 AM
Here's some WW2 history that Rummy the Dummy forgot to tell the people of America yesterday(that includes mental midgits like you John D.)
HERMAN GOERING
NUREMBERG TRIALS
"Of course the people don't want war,but after all,it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy,and it's always a simple matter to drag people along,whether it's a democracy,a FASCIST DICTATORSHIP,or a communist dictatorship.
Voice,or no voice,the people can always be brought to the bidding of their leaders.
That is easy.All you have to do is tell them that they are being attacked,and DENOUNCE THE PACIFISTS FOR LACK OF PATRIOTISM,and exposing the country to greater danger."
I guess this is where George W.,and Darth Cheney got their gameplan for their phoney war on Iraq.
Posted by: John E. | August 30, 2006 11:51 AM
Nothing new here, everyone knows most churchgoers don't vote democrat. Another obvious post from the swamp.
Posted by: Bill | August 30, 2006 1:17 PM
Bill...It would be even nicer if the churchgoers
actually believed in the teachings. Then the blacks would reached out to also.
Posted by: bill r. | August 30, 2006 2:41 PM
The slogan of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) in its campaign to realize equitable immigration reform has been "Today We March, Tomorrow We Vote." ICIRR was among the organizations that coordinated the first march in Chicago (in March, appropriately) that spawned a wave of immigrant rights marches across the country. They also coordinated the even bigger May 1 Chicago march.
Today, ICIRR publicized data from the 2000 Census that supports its GOTV (Get Out the Vote) strategy for immigration reform. ICIRR released a statement today summarizing the findings in its report which shows that naturalized US citizens (read: immigrants) are a rapidly-growing constituency in the Chicago suburbs, and may prove to turn the tide this fall (for example, in the Tammy Duckworth district).
This data seems to support ICIRR's strategy of using a GOTV campaign (and registering new US citizens to vote) to squeeze equitable immigration reform out of an extremely reluctant Congress. They call it the "New Americans Democracy Project."
Incidentally, the Chicago Sun Times has exclusive coverage of this story. (If that link doesn't work, try this one.
I think this strategy is brilliant. After the big immigrant rights marches proved insufficient to provoke Congress to come to a compromise, I know that some of the groups involved in the marches couldn't figure out what to do next. This is where ideas like the "Day Without an Immigrant" boycott were spawned (which, btw, wasn't very effective, cuz it wasn't universally supported by all the organizations and also wasn't conducive to low-income people who need to make money). But what better way to goad senators and representatives than to threaten their jobs or their party's majority?
Posted by: DeviationStandard | August 30, 2006 2:48 PM
I guess religion, Bill R., is all dependent on the person that prays and not the deity they pray to. I can tell you that the parishioners in my church, an evangelical Lutheran Church on the North Side, reach out to the black community. And to the poor, no matter what race they are.
I can't speak for all christians, I can't even speak for all republicans, but it's my belief that the vast majority of both are the furthest thing from racist.
Posted by: Bill | August 30, 2006 3:45 PM
Bill..I don't doubt your ethics..or the ethics of most churchgoers. But to have Mr. Rove targeting "white" churchgoers using the argument
that the republican party is the faith based party for them and purposely leaving blacks out because of votes doesn't add up.
Posted by: bill r. | August 30, 2006 4:02 PM
Sure Bill, but you could say the same thing for the democrat strategists who send their candidates to black churches to have them "clap off rhythm" as Obama said, and then have them skip the white churches that they probably go to every week. It's a game that both parties play. Mr. Rove, who, incidentally it was just revealed was NOT the original source for the Plame story, also is the mastermind of the strategy to run black candidates for major offices under the GOP banner (Michael Steele, Lynn Swann, Ken Blackwell) this election year to try to bring more black voters to the GOP, so I don't think he doesn't want them on his side.
Posted by: Bill | August 30, 2006 5:03 PM
Nothing new here, everyone knows most churchgoers don't vote democrat. Another obvious post from the swamp.
Posted by: Bill | Aug 30, 2006 1:17:55 PM
At first glance this seemed about on the mark.
This does not hold true for black voters.
They are overwhelmingly Democratic loyalists, and heavy churchgoers.
The Rove strategy you mentioned might not work.
Any Republican candidate will be poison at the ballot box among black voters because of the association with Bush.
Posted by: johnf | August 30, 2006 6:05 PM
Ahh Christians...
All Christians who support this war need to head in to church on Sunday, kneel, and ask some hard questions about what they support and what Jesus (also known as the Prince of Peace) would think of their support for our current 'retribution for 9/11through war masked in the cloak of patriotism':
Would Jesus approve of the 10's of thousands of civilians killed?
Would Jesus approve of our justification for the war on terror, would he say it was our 'right' because of 9/11?
Would he ever utter the phrase "Well, we gotta get them before they get us!"
At what point would Jesus think we "break even" with our revenge for ~3,000 American innocents lost on 9/11?
Would Jesus be mad at those who push for war as a solution and 'our patriotic duty', yet take pride in supposedly following his teachings?
And honestly, would Jesus shed any less tears for a beautiful Iraqi child killed as an innocent than a beautiful American child killed as an innocent in the Twin Towers?
We claim ourselves to be a Christian god-fearing country, yet we plunder the earth, crave the materialistic, and can cover the innocent deaths of war in a cloak of patriotic duty.
If you are truly Christian, lie awake tonight and listen with your heart of hearts, can you not hear any messages of peace once the anger and need for retribution fade away?
Ignore the politics, the papers, the media, your neighbor, listen to your god instead.
Hear any answers?
Hear any agreement on our current revenge-inspired course?
Posted by: Erick | August 30, 2006 9:16 PM