Reply #38: MW apparently is a great "wedge issue" for evangelicals, and already [View All]

apparently has split off some evangelicals to the Democratic side in states that had minimum wage referenda this year, according to a NY Times article (see the snippet below). The $7.15 likely to be achieved over two years in an early 2007 vote won't be enough, and more state minimum wage referenda for 2008 could be the path to a bigger Democratic share of evangelicals.

Groups like Rev Jim Wallis's "Red-Letter Christians" ( http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=about_us.redletterchristians ) are doing a great job reorienting evangelicals toward what Jesus actually is credited in the Bible as having said. By my reading of the Bible, Jesus's number one issue was helpeng the poor, not protecting private property with "supply side economics" or taunting scapegoats each campaign season.

IMO the more evangelicals who actually read their Bibles rather than rely on the interpretations of Falwells and Robertsons, the more they'll stand with us and not with them.

From http://www10.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/us/politics/09relig.html?pagewanted=print :

"Religious Voting Data Show Some Shift, Observers Say

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN November 9, 2006

... "The biggest change appears to be in the states where the Democratic candidates made a real effort to attract these religious voters," Mr. Green said. "It seems to have paid off." Never before in any election had the religious left been so organized and so active. They held rallies and passed out hundreds of thousands of voter guides, all with the message that religious conservatives' traditional agenda of opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage was too narrow. With the help of religious liberals, six states passed ballot initiatives calling for a raise in the minimum wage.

"This was a significant shift in the religious vote, where you see a reclaiming of the values debate," said Alexia Kelley, executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, a liberal group formed after the last election to counter Catholic conservatives. In Ohio, voters elected all four state board of education candidates who opposed the teaching of intelligent design, and victories like that gave religious liberals cause to proclaim the end of the right's dominance of religious voters.

Bobby Clark, deputy director of ProgressNow, a liberal group in Colorado, said, "After 2004, people were saying that the religious right owns this country now. Far from it. They have networks and the ability to move quickly and to dominate the airwaves, but they do not represent most Americans. Most Americans are pretty moderate people.""