Poll Brings Bad News For Democrats On Religion Front

The Moderate Voice blog comments on a new Pew Research Center for the People & the Press poll, which shows that fewer people (29%) see Democrats as friendly to religion now than a year ago (40%). And the change is seen across all demographic groups: "This isn't good news for Democrats, no matter how some may downplay it. It can't be dismissed as the natural consequence of opposing much of the social conservatives' lets-shove-it-through agenda. It boils down to ways of communicating with religious people so they see the Demmies may differ on nuts-and-bolts, but basically share their core values. It's a failure that could cost the party bigtime at the polls....since its an huge opening the GOP will use to its advantage in 2006 and 2008. Not that the Democratic party has tried to ignore religious voters — something that makes these poll numbers all the more troubling for Democrats....So if you strip all this away and stand back and look at it, you get this: the Democrats have an image problem. And one that could well cost it considerable votes. Simply relying on the downward trend in GWB's polling isn't a recipe for success. A sizeable people view the Demcocratic tent as perhaps not as big as Democrats think they view it."

No surprise. A growing number of my relatives - many of whom are evangelical Christians, and all of whom used to be staunch Democrats - believe that the Democratic Party is hostile to religion and old-school black culture. Most are now independents, but a few of them are exploring the Republican Party. They are part of the potential Cosby Republicans that I've discussed in the past that the Republican Party is busing trying to bring into its fold.