http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0604.sullivan.html

Take a moment to read this article, its very interesting. It talks about moderate evangelicals leaving the GOP. It makes sense since some of the issues have been framed quite differently over the last few years. Take the environment, it was just a bunch of liberals and hippies that cared but now evangelicals are on board. You frame environmentalism as saving the planet that God created and you have a new group of people interested. Abortion, evangelicals do not support abortion but you work with them on methods to lower the occurances instead of outlawing it, you got them on board. Helping the poor, we have seen what the Bush administration is capable of when it comes to helping those who need it most. Now the Dems don't seem too bad afterall. When you consider a number of the Dems values they match closer than those in the GOP. The Dems care about the environment, the working class, helping those in need, public education, fair trade and religious tolerance. The Dems and evangelicals will always differ on certain social issues but I think there is more ground that is shared between the two. I am not saying I want the american taliban on my side, the GOP can keep the Dobson's, Robertson's and Falwells but we will take the moderates who are tired of being played.

Howard Dean set out to bring religion back to the Democratic party, he got a lot of flac for it but I think it was a smart thing to do. The Dems never hated religion they just didn't like how the Christian Coalition twisted religion into a business. Hillary has embraced the evangelicals and reading this article Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have also. That is why the Dems had the new governer of VA give the followup to the State of the Union. He can talk about religion and still support the Democratic cause. 2006 is proving to be an interesting election year. If the election was tomorrow I have a feeling the GOP would lose both houses. We have to wait and see what happens over the next few months but I think the GOP has enough scandals to keep them busy.