A new poll shows that fewer Americans view the Republican Party as "“friendly to religion" than a year ago, with the decline particularly steep among Catholics and white evangelical Protestants--constituencies at the core of the RepublicansÂ’ conservative Christian voting bloc.
The survey found that the proportion of Americans who say the Republican Party is friendly to religion fell 8 percentage points in the last year, to 47 percent, from 55 percent. Among Catholics and white evangelical Protestants, the decline was 14 percentage points.
The Democratic Party suffers from the perception of an even more drastic religion deficit, but that is not new. Just 26 percent of poll respondents said the Democratic Party is friendly to religion, down from 29 percent last year.
The telephone poll, conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, was conducted July 6 to 19 among 2,003 adults. The margin of sampling error was 3 to 4 percentage points, depending on the question.
The survey examined Americans'’ attitudes on such topics as politics, science, the Bible, global warming and Israel. But the most startling change, said John Green, senior fellow in religion and American politics at the Pew Forum, was the perception of the Republican Party by its core constituency.
"“It'’s unclear how directly this will translate into voting behavior, but this is a baseline indicator that religious conservatives see the party they've chosen to support as less friendly to religion than they used to," Mr. Green said.
He speculated that religious conservatives could feel betrayed that some Republican politicians recently voted to back stem cell research, and that a Republican-dominated Congress failed to pass a constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage.
"“At the minimum, there will be less good will toward the Republican Party by these conservative religious groups and a disenchantment that the party will be able to deliver on its promises," Mr. Green said.
Wait a minute, the Religious Right is feeling betrayed because the Republican Party has voted to back stem cell research and because the Republicans have not been able to pass the constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage? And I haven't even mentioned that the abortion legislation is pretty much DOA. Now this surprises me because the Republican Party has control of all three branches of government. They have their own evangelical in the White House. Congress is controlled by the Republican Party. And the two justices that have been chosen by President Bush and confirmed to Congress have received favorable ratings from the Religious Right. In fact, the Religious Right and conservatives were able to block President Bush's first selection of Harriet Miers selection to the court Is the Religious Right turning their anger against the Republican Party for not giving the Religious Right the social changes they so desired?
What is amazing about this survey is that this current Republican Party was created by ubber-strategist Karl Rove as an alliance between corporate interests and the Religious Right. Rove actively courted the Religious Right to vote Republican, and in return the Religious Right was able completely control the Republican Party's social agenda. Did Karl Rove and the Religious Right miscalculate the Democratic Party's opposition towards legislating the Religious Right's social agenda? Or did Rove simply dismiss the Religious Right's social agenda in order to concentrate on President Bush's economic agenda of tax cuts and corporate goodies give-away? Perhaps Rove saw the Religious Right as just another interest group to mine votes for the next election, tossing them a few scraps of legislative victories, such as stem cell restrictions, while ignoring the Religious Right's complete agenda. I'm not sure.
But it is an interesting thought to consider, the Religious Right's possible anger over the Republican Party for a pact that they both knowingly entered.
No comments:
Post a Comment