Evangelicals and Rural Americans Are Breaking Big for Obama

[babylonsister]

Evangelicals and Rural Americans Are Breaking Big for Obama

By Robert S. Eshelman, Tomdispatch.com. Posted October 30, 2008.

A mass defection from the Republican Party may be underway in counties that were once GOP strongholds. Call it the reverse Bradley Effect.


There's clearly a new political landscape forming in the U.S. That's what the polls are telling us. It's not just that the first major-party black candidate for President is leading by significant margins in the national polls; it's not just that North Dakota, a state George W. Bush won in 2004 by 64%, is believed to be "in play"; it's not just that Virginia which, like North Dakota, was last carried by a Democrat in the sweep year of 1964, is, according to the most recent Washington Post poll and others, in the Obama camp by at least 8 points, or that he's leading in a remarkable number of states Bush took in 2004, or even that Democratic Senate and House candidates are making a run of it in previously ridiculous places.

Consider, instead, three recent polls in the context of the Bush years. Obama and McCain are now in a "statistical dead heat" among born-again evangelicals, those Rovian foot soldiers of two successful Bush elections, according to a recent survey; and the same seems to be true in Sarah Palin's "real America," those rural and small town areas she's praised to the skies. According to a poll commissioned by the Center for Rural Strategies, in those areas which Bush won in 2004 by 53%-41%, Obama now holds a statistically insignificant one point lead. To complete this little trifecta, Gallup has just released a poll showing that Jews are now likely to vote for Obama by a more than 3 to 1 majority (74% to 22%).

If present projections come close to holding, this could prove to be a rare reconfiguring or turning-point election -- as Wall Street expert Steve Fraser first suggested might be possible at TomDispatch way back in February 2007. If so, the Republican Party, only recently besotted by dreams of a generational Pax Republicana, might find itself driven back into the deep South and deep West for who knows how long, "an extremist rump, reduced to a few stronghold states and obsessed with causes that seem not to matter to the general public."

Among the remaining unknowns in this election, of course, are the intertwined issues of class and race. In this regard, few places have been more closely examined than parts of Pennsylvania, a battleground state in which polls show John McCain significantly behind, but which he must capture if he hopes to win this election, and a place where working-class, as well as possibly racist, "Hillary voters" were supposed to be especially strong. Ever since the primaries, reporters have been tromping the state in search of them. Today, TomDispatch has an interesting twist on such articles. We've sent a home-town boy back to Pennsylvania to offer a more personal view of the race there -- and the news isn't good for the future of the Republican Party. -- Introduction by TomDispatch editor, Tom Engelhardt

more...

http://www.alternet.org/election08/105261/evangelicals_and_rural_americans_are_breaking_big_for_obama/?page=entire

[Ian David]

1. I'm afraid he might lose them- during his infomercial, he said he reads Harry Potter to his kids.

[babylonsister]

2. What doesn't insult or annoy someone who's determined to be

insulted or annoyed by Obama? Maybe the economy will trump other considerations. I wish the content of Obama's campaign and character would be enough, and it's too bad people are too willfully ignorant to see and understand who the superior candidate is.

[Ian David]

4. I hope you're right.

Anyone dumb enough to believe Harry Potter really encourages Satanism was probably going to vote for McCain anyway.

[genna]

5. I heard that HP reference too. Every church goer does not believe every preacher's message.

I think the HP controversy was contrived. There is a proscription against witchcraft in the Old Testament, but I thought the Salem Witch Trials turned every Christian off of hanging women for allegations of witchcraft.

If Narnia and the Wizard of Oz is okay, why is HP so far off the rails for Christians?

[Marrah_G]

8. Holy crap that woman is scary!

[genna]

3. This has been my impression of country places like Virginia, southern Maryland, and the south

I thought PA had some issues between Phila and Pittsburgh. There are some parts of upstate New York that make my stomach twist too.

But I never thought it was everybody.

I also didn't think that it was enough people to turn them away from Democrats. It's as if our party said, ok we are for equal rights for everyone, we are going to lose these Northern and Westernstates! Why? They are libertarian and fiscal Republicans, not we hate everybody Republicans.


There are still places that call Obama and anyone who looks like him a racial epithet and would still vote for him. Why? Black people have been living side by side with White people in deep country places for years. The racial charges go back and forth between/amongst us, but we've learned to live together. It is not a politically correct place. AND we've managed to find a way to work together without too many Rodney King or Abner Luweema (sp?) incidents (that doesn't mean that they don't happen...it just mean race riots don't break out where property is destroyed).


I'm glad Howard Dean came from a state where he knew what some of these differences are and realized that those differences were not an impediment. I'm glad that Barack Obama came from a city where the political divisions are so obvious, but the people have chosen to work beyond their differences. Both people realized once you get beyond the self evident differences, there are places to work together.

[On the Road]

6. "There are Places That Would Call Obama..

a racial epithet and still vote for him."

Reminiscent of the canvassing story in rural PA posted here awhile back. The wife asked her husband her who they were voting for, and he yelled from the next room, "we're voting for the n*****!"

Relationships between the races are deep and complex. Deep racism can exist alongside a lot of other deep emotions.

[nc4bo]

14. You said this very well and it represents many of the people(including neighbors) we interact with

on a daily basis.

The south can be a very strange place indeed.

[Joiwind]

7. Evangelicals and Barack (Tolkien References)

Until relatively recently, I WAS an Evangelical, and still maintain deep ties with members of that community, most of whom would turn the stomachs of many on this board. Aside - I have noticed a rabid anti-Christian bias in many here, a lot of whom are probably ex-Fundamentalists, so its easy to forgive.

The two political parties have neatly divided the message of Jesus down the middle and have used it to divide and separate us. The Republicans have exploited, in a a deeply mercenary way, the visceral revulsion that devout Christians feel for the experiment of "sexual liberation" that our society has undertaken since the mid-fifties. They have painted Democrats as urban libertines and have made that picture stick, in order to promote their diabolical program of corporate aggrandizement.

Most of us ardently prayed that the Republicans would add the "as you have done for the least of these" part of Jesus' ethics to the "go and sin no more" part that the Republicans had down cold. This made us vulnerable to the so-called "compassionate conservatism" ruse that Karl Rove so cynically manufactured like Sauron fashioning the One Ring in the bowels of Mount Doom.

Well, we see now that "compassionate conservatism" is a fraud; the ones towards whom it shows compassion are not the ones for whom Jesus would have us show compassion. So we gather up the shards of Narsil and make a painful pilgrimage to the lands of the West to see if there is still any life or honor there.

I always maintained that the Democrats could harvest the Evangelicals easily. The core message of the Democratic party resonates deeply within Evangelical hearts. Make no mistake about it, "Evangelicals for Obama" haven't changed their minds about abortion, or gun control, or any host of other social issues. But many of us have come to the conclusion that another Republican victory would allow the tapeworm class to finally devour and discard its host, after which we wouldn't have a country left in which to continue these discussions.

Just a husk.

[Marrah_G]

9. My intense dislike of Fundies comes from their agenda against my religion.

It also comes from their insistence on trying to push their faith on my children both in society and in school.

Even if they come over to the Democratic side my opinion of them remains the same.

If they then inject their loathing of my family and anyone else different from them into the party, I will leave the party for good.

[Joiwind]

10. Expecting Christians to not "push their faith"

...is like expecting the moon not to rise. Just ask the lions in the Roman amphitheaters.

But any religion that teaches or preaches the loathing of others is not the religion of Jesus, however often it may invoke his name.

[Marrah_G]

11. They often call loathing "love"

They want to change us because they love us.

They want to save us because they love us.

However this is better then burning us because they love us.

This is aimed directly at the fundies in all 3 Abrahamic religions.

Note: In all honesty you will not find many mainstream Traditions of these religions who do not feel that way.

[Ian David]

13. The Quakers don't believe in pushing their faith. And (I think) neither do The Amish. n/t

[Ian David]

12. There are Christians and THEN there are chrisTians or "Xians"

Most of us here on DU know the difference, although many may be in-artful in communicating that.

Christians are those who follow the teachings of Christ.

chrisTians or "Xians" are all-cross, no-Christ.

Don't be disheartened.

Even those of us who think believing in an invisible man who lives in the sky is silly, also understand who is on our side, and who is not.

We know the difference between James Dobson and Jim Wallace.

And we're appreciative to have you on our team, whether you worship one god, nineteen gods, or none.

[Peacetrain]

15. Well actually the X

is the mark of the original Christians.. the ones we should try and emulate..“X” is the first Greek character in Christ’s name. And “X” was the secret sign of a person’s devotion to Christ in times when people were persecuted for being Christians.

:hi:...

EDIT: spelling error

[Ian David]

16. Ooh... I didn't know that. I'll have to stop using Xians as an insult, then.

That would explain why Jewish immigrants who couldn't write English refused to sign their name as an "X" and used a circle instead.

But doesn't explain why so many chrisTians get mad when they see "Merry Xmas."

[Peacetrain]

23. Becasue they do not understand where the X came from

Most have not a clue what their religion really means. They have all this magical thinking, that if they do certain things it is like a spell that will bring them good luck. To be honest with you.. 70 to 80% of people who claim to be Christians are not. They could never live the rigors of true selflessness, humility, love of the poor. In fact they go quite the opposite.

They read a verse with out reading the entire text and try and build around that. I could give you 10 individual passages from the New Testament that would prove Jesus was mentally unstable and hated his family. It would be totally wrong because they were out of context. But there you have it. That is where so many claim faith from..Out of Context

[Joiwind]

17. Sometimes, I call them "Jesusists"

Not Jesuits, mind you.

It isn't a charitable practice, but sometimes I like to make the distinction between those who mine Jesus' teachings for material with which to construct an ideology as opposed to those who "sell all that they have, take up the cross, and follow me".

Not that I am any great shakes at the latter....

[Ian David]

18. That's a bad meme because it's hard to pronounce.

Saying "Cross-chins" instead of "Christians" is a little easier.

[crazylikafox]

19. wow. great post.

I have family in the "Alabama" part of Pennsylvania. They're people of very modest means who've been voting Repub for generations. They're good people. I've been thinking for some time that we have a lot more in common with these people than we have differences. We just needed someone who could articulate it and make them believe. Hopefully, we have that in Obama.

[Laelth]

22. Welcome to DU!

The United States is a LIBERAL Country.

:dem:

-Laelth

[Nevernose]

24. Great post, and a minor disagreement

Overall a very good post -- welcome to DU!

But I will take a minor exception to the use of "experiment of 'sexual liberation.'" There are just as many unwed teenage mothers today as there were fifty or even a hundred years ago. The difference is that today we're willing to talk about sex openly. My inner Southern Baptist redneck is horrified at the billboards I see for nudie bars all over the place; this man is only slightly outvoted by the Well-At-Least-They're-Being-Honest-About-It-These-Days guy who lives inside my brain.

Sex is an integral part of being human, and we should feel more comfortable discussing and confronting issues head-on, especially with younger people.

[Cha]

20. Rec'd! And what's not to like

about the guy who only wants what's best for Americans and our country?

[Laelth]

21. Evangelicals? This I thought I'd never see.

Of course, they should vote for Democrats. The Democratic Party has vastly more "Christian" values, but I figured this group was so snowed that they'd never realize that the Republics talk a good game but never really do anything that's remotely "Christian."

Very, very interesting.

The United States is a LIBERAL Country.

:dem:

-Laelth

[Jennicut]

25. Great article. Its almost like the people there in Buck County want things to change but are afraid

of the unknown. Hopefully they will choose Obama and not the status quo. These people are doing badly economically and they need to realize that any Rethug who shares their "values" will not care one damn thing about them after they get their vote.