dokeo kago grapho soi kratistos Theophilos: Religious Value Voter

One of the most interesting results of the 2006 election is not the “revolt of the middle” but the emergence of the religious value voter as a swing voter. This is recognition that “No one has a corner on values.” Everyone noticed that the Catholic vote returned home to the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party selected faith friendly candidates such as Bob Casey, Jr. in Pennsylvania, Health Shuler in North Carolina and Ted Strickland in Ohio. Perhaps the Party remembered the success of Bob Edgar in winning six congressional races in Delaware County Pennsylvania at the time arguable one of the strongest Republican organizations in the country.

A number of individuals and groups redefined religious values to be not only abortion and same sex marriages but also the war in Iraq and corruption in Washington. These religious value voters are also very interested in the issues that affect the quality of our lives such as peace-making, poverty relief, environmental preservation and tolerance. They are the ones most likely to say, I think and believe in the power of one therefore I exist.

The religious value voter must not be deceived by party or church leaders who attempt to redefine themselves. The most notorious example was when the man they called The Senator ran for the US Senate on the Prohibition Party. He was later exposed as the person who controlled the largest boot-legging operation in the United States. Ironically his bill which passed the General Assembly in May 1933 provided for the state convention to vote on the 21^st Amendment and the enactment of the omnibus bill for liquor control and the establishment of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, the largest single purchaser of liquor in the USA.

Groups within the party, or for that matter within the church, who feel they have been neglected by the party or the church, need to redefine the issues so that their block is noticed by the party or the church as a block of swing voter. It is not always necessary to vote with our feet. We can redefine the issues.

I for one redefine the issue as pro-quality of life.

Copyrighted 2006

Religion