[Marxism] A Glimpse into the Mind-Set of WC Bush Voters II

["Charles Brown" <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sunday, November 7, 2004

Evangelical voters won't back off on gay rights, abortion

By Nolan Finley / The Detroit News

        

Anna Sponenburgh doesn't give a diddly squat about P. Diddy. She's OK with
Bruce Springsteen, until he starts meddling in politics, but Michael Moore
will never get her $8.50 at a movie theater.

Sponenburgh, 36, of Westland, was part of the tidal wave of evangelical
Christians who carried George W. Bush to victory Tuesday and in the process
befuddled political pundits who spent the pre-election months dissecting the
minds of young voters, black voters, women voters, Hollywood voters and
NASCAR dads, but managed to miss religious voters.

Voters like Sponenburgh. "For me, faith was the decisive issue," says the
single mother of two and Ford Motor Co. <javascript:companybox('F')>
engineer. "My Bible study group at work prayed about the election on Monday.
I decided to vote for George W. Bush because of the way he lives his faith."


Sponenburgh is not a rock-ribbed Republican. She'd gladly vote for a
Democrat, if the candidate reflected her moral values. Such as?

"Opposition to abortion and gay marriage, primarily," she says. "I'd vote
for a Democrat who took the right stand on those issues. Everything else to
me is secondary. An economy doesn't make a nation great; righteousness
exalts a nation."

Sponenburgh knows the cultural, political and media elites cringe at such
statements. "They're very uncomfortable with evangelicals," she says. "They
make assumptions about us, that we are uneducated, narrow-minded people who
don't matter."

They mattered Tuesday, and that has Democrats strategizing about how they
can peel off this formidable voting bloc.

Credit evangelicals for turning the solid South solidly Republican, and for
passing anti-gay marriage amendments by wide margins in 11 states, including
Michigan.

They are a bona-fide political force. And they're giving a party
traditionally associated with country clubs and Cadillacs a middle class,
middle America base.

They love the president for the same reason the left hates him: He freely
mixes his religion and politics. While John Kerry spoke vaguely of faith and
spirituality, Bush talked about Jesus. Evangelicals understand the
difference.

Democrats should know their attraction to Bush has nothing to do with
traditional politics. "I'm not a Republican or a conservative," says
Sponenburgh. "I'm a Christian."

In truth, there's much about the Democratic party that appeals to her,
particularly its stand on health care and social programs. How can Democrats
win her vote?

"They have to turn to God." And turn away from abortion and gay rights.
That's not something Democrats are likely to do. They can't abandon their
base anymore than Republicans can bite the hand that fed them Tuesday, even
though the alliance may cost them votes in the middle..

So bridging the cultural divide that produced the stunning moral values vote
will be problematic for both parties.

Because voters like Sponenburgh won't buy a candidate who simply adds a
Bible verse to a speech, or shows up in an urban church to join the choir in
a hymn or two.

"That's just marketing," she says. "We want the real thing."

Nolan Finley is editorial page editor of The Detroit News. Reach him at
nfinley@xxxxxxxxxxx or (313) 222-2064. Watch Nolan Finley at 2 p.m. Sunday
and 5:30 p.m. Friday on "Am I Right?" on WTVS-TV (Channel 56).





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