Friday, 06.27.08
Obama and the Evangelicals
Photo by David Banks/Getty Images
Goodbye to All That
December 2007
Is the Party Over?
June 1998
Christopher Caldwell argues that James Dobson is weakening the Republican Party.
On the face of it, Dobson's comments seem like a bizarre overreaction to a two-year-old Obama speech, in which he argued for a progressive politics more accommodating to religious believers while taking some (relatively gentle) jabs at religious conservatives. It's easier to understand Dobson's outburst, though, in the context of events like Obama's recent off-the-record meeting with evangelical leaders, after which one attendee wrote that Obama "came across as thoughtful and much more of a 'centrist' than what I would have expected," and added that while he would be voting for McCain, he wouldn't be surprised if the 2008 race were "the first time a majority of evangelicals will vote for a Democrat for president since Jimmy Carter."
I suspect that last prediction drastically overstates the case, but there's no question that Obama's overt religiosity, his emphasis on social justice, and his team's savvy religious outreach make him a more attractive figure to many evangelical voters than any other Democratic nominee of recent vintage. Factor in John McCain's reticence about his own faith, his much-publicized spats with religious-right pooh-bahs, his obvious discomfort with issues like abortion and gay marriage and his disorganized, behind-the-eight-ball staff, and you seem to have a recipe for real Democratic inroads among a constituency that the GOP has owned for a long time now. This places Dobson, never the most politically-savvy operator, in an obvious bind: He's on the record saying he won't vote for McCain in the general election (an "undorsement" that came to late to actually affect the GOP primary campaign), but he no doubt doesn't want to be perceived as throwing the election to a pro-choice Democrat -- or worse, losing a generation of Christians to the lure of the religious left.
Of course, Obama is in a bind as well. If he moved to the center on abortion, a knowledgeable religion journalist remarked to me last week, he could win half of evangelicals under 40. But can he move to the center on abortion - by flip-flopping on partial-birth abortion, say, while making a big deal about embracing the (largely-symbolic) abortion-reduction plan being pressed by Democrats for Life -- after a bruising primary campaign in which he barely beat out a feminist icon with unimpeachable pro-choice bona fides? I've assumed that the answer is no and no again, not least because he's already ahead in the polls, and doesn't need to look for potentially gamechanging maneuvers that might blow up in his face. But if Obama wants a historic mandate, rather than a narrow win -- if he wants to cut the heart out of the GOP coalition and leave the Republicans for dead -- then breaking with his party's abortion orthodoxy to go hard after the evangelical vote is one obvious way to do it.
The GipperSarah Posner worries that Obama is reaching out to evangelicals by channeling Ronald Reagan. |
KingmakerMichael Crowley argues that James Dobson is America's most influential evangelical leader. |
Conversing with religious votersTime reports on Obama's organized efforts to court evangelicals and concludes he might be the Democrats' best hope to win over religious voters. |
The abortion factorMichael Gerson argues that Obama's potential to win over evangelical voters has one major limitation: he fails the pro-life test. |
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dlw
The strange thing is we have a psychologist by training criticizing a lawyer by training on the basis of his Biblical interpretation. Could it be that neither one is particularly skilled in this area?
The problem with Dobson is that he never learned limits. He has some decent insights on childrearing and relationships, but he and his organization have lost focus on the family and wandered into all manner of issues. Instead of reaching a new generation of believers with practical insights on Christian family life, Dobson has tried to leverage his existing audience to advance his own political agenda. The sad thing is it has ended so badly for him. Most Politicians don't respect him, Most Pastors can't stand him, and his aging audience is fading away.
I think most americans are afraid to look inside of their own fears, and face that they also have some reservations about being black in america today. The fear that in some way we would treat people the way they know they have treated us in the past.
true believers can never compromise on abortion. abortion is the most evil of all child abuse including a child predator's torture of and killing of babies and toddlers and any innocent human being. True believers can never condone murder.
No, he shouldn't betray the women who already support him in order to win over the evangelicals, and he will not do that. Late-term abortions have been totally misrepresented by anti-choicers (and I say this as a former Collegian for Life - I'm now pro-choice). Pro-choice advocates simply need to see that accurate information on this issue reaches voters and let them see that being pro-choice is about compassion, not murder.
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I think Obama cd move to the middle by endorsing an idea I wrote up called the pragmatic prolife manifesto. I think there's a way for one to be consistently prolife and prochoice.
dlw
Posted by dlw | June 28, 2008 7:19 PM