For the first time in many, many elections, Barna is reporting that Born Again Christians no longer favor Republicans and that his study shows if the election were held today, any Democrat would get more Born Again votes than any Republican.
If the election were held today, and all of the remaining candidates from both parties were on the ballot, the frontrunners among born again voters would be Hillary Clinton (favored by 20% of born again likely voters), Barack Obama (18%) and Mike Huckabee (12%). No other candidate reached double figures. Thirty percent of the born again likely voters said they were still undecided as to who they would choose.I think the reasons for this turnaround are not hard to understand, and I think they are threefold:
1. George W Bush portrayed himself as a Born Again Christian who fully reflected the views of Christians. In reality, his policies were all over the map, and have turned off Born Agains.
2. The two front-runners for the Republican ticket are hardly representative of Born Agains: a Mormon, and a man who has never made much of his faith. Huckabee is a former pastor, but has failed to connect with many, many Christians.
3. We can not underestimate the dream of Born Agains to prove the American Dream that ANYONE can achieve by having a woman or black president. It is the ultimate expression of abolitionism and universal suffrage, which have always had a strong place in the hearts of Born Agains.
But again, it drives home the point that the G.O.P. has a hard row to hoe if they want even a chance to win this time around.
2 comments:
One thing it does prove is that Christians (at least self described born agains) are NOT a voting bloc... they do think freely and are all over the map in terms of beliefs.
And that is a good thing.
1 is probably the only reason I disagree, but that just turns me off Hucakabee, not too the Dems.
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