The author (AEI author) empirically shows how Republicans are now 76%
evangelicals. That, I suppose, only confirms why I am not, nor
probably ever will be again, a Republican. What I think the author
leaves out is that the majority or the the 24% are authoritarians if
only unwittingly. But it's a good piece:
---------------
The Republican Future: Three Choices
By Henry Olsen
The Republican base is mostly white evangelical Christians--vastly
different than the coalition that Ronald Reagan inherited (and
transformed) in 1980. The GOP must understand this fact in order to
decide how to expand its coalition. Options for growth include
appealing to the educated affluent, the working-class nonevangelical
faithful, or minorities.
As conservatives gather this weekend for the first Conservative
Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference since the 2008 debacle,
they need to consider one fact as they contemplate rebuilding the
movement and party. Understanding this fact will help them meet their
political challenge.
The fact: 42% of John McCain's vote came from white evangelical or
born-again Christians.
That's right: according to the exit poll, 26% of the electorate is
white evangelicals, and 74% of them voted for McCain. McCain pulled
slightly less than 46% of the vote, so about four-in-ten of McCain's
voters were white evangelicals.
There are many ways to rebuild that majority by adapting Reagan's 1977
playbook to the modern playing field.
To put it in perspective, white evangelicals are nearly twice as
important to Republicans as African-Americans are for Democrats.
Despite the surge in African-American turnout and the record high
percentage Obama received from those voters, blacks comprised only 23%
of the winning coalition.
This documents what people have long suspected: the white evangelical
community is now the Republican Party's base. And it creates the
challenge all conservatives and Republicans need to answer, how to
build a stable majority coalition by building on that base.
http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.29451,filter.all/pub_detail.asp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to
date
Get the Free Trial
http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f
Archive:
http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:289959
Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm
Unsubscribe:
http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
