We’ve been hearing for months about the Dems drive to reach out better and more effectively to religious voters nationwide. It’s a reasonable goal — like the 2000 election, the 2004 results showed that the more often a voter attends religious services, the more likely he or she would vote Republican.
Now we’re seeing some of the initial steps Dems are taking to change this direction.
Acknowledging a divide between the Democratic Party and religious voters during the 2004 election, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) is developing a “faith agenda” to try to reconnect with the millions of Americans who feel the minority party is one of nonbelievers.
Pelosi, a dedicated Catholic, has tapped Caucus Vice Chairman Rep. James Clyburn (S.C.) to spearhead an internal party effort to recapture faith-based voters. Clyburn will convene a working group of 15 to 25 House Democrats to review party policies and ideas and to look at new ways to frame those issues in faith-based terms.
“House Democrats are people of deep faith and share the values of faith communities,” Pelosi said. “Congressman Clyburn and the Faith Working Group are working to strengthen our ties with the faith community and to find areas where we can work together.”
This initiative may come on the heels of the election, but it’s part of a plan that Pelosi launched two years ago, when she and her staff started seeking advice from religious leaders and party strategists about how Dems could help articulate their message to people of faith and help demonstrate the ways in which the Dem agenda reflects religious values.
[Pelosi spokeswoman Jennifer] Crider noted that on nearly every Democratic position — from Social Security to education to the budget — the party’s agenda mirrors the values “the faith community lives by.”
That’s true, but it’s going to take a while to successfully make that pitch to the public.
I say that because I hope Dems are patient with this process because it should be a long-term investment of time and energy. If the common caricature of the parties is secular Dems vs. pious Republicans, that won’t change over night — or over an election cycle.
That said, it seems Pelosi and other Dem leaders appreciate the work that needs to be done.
Clyburn said Democrats “may not wear their religion on their sleeves” but are no less devout in their beliefs than the GOP. He said that virtually every Democratic policy reflects strong moral and religious values, adding that the party has not done a good enough job making that clear to voters.
“I knew that we had a problem two or three days after the election when I started looking at the exit polling,” Clyburn said. “I saw that our Catholic nominee for president lost the Catholic vote.”
“Our problem is not our programs,” Clyburn added. “It’s been our expressions and interpretations of those programs. We are people of faith.”
On the flip side, we also have to hope that the entire caucus doesn’t swing too far in the other direction (cough, cough, Joe Lieberman, cough). Clyburn, to his credit, seems aware of the best approach.
Clyburn said the goal is to get Democratic candidates and Members comfortable talking about policies in faith-based terms. Many Democrats, he said, only address faith and religion when their beliefs are called into question, most notably on the campaign trail.
He said Democrats won’t suddenly start to quote the Bible and the Ten Commandments when advocating policies. Rather, he said, the leadership is going to spend the coming months looking for new ways to talk about the issues in subtle terms with which religious individuals can relate.
“What we’re trying to do is get people comfortable with the language, because our proposals are in line with what these people would have them be,” Clyburn said. “The problem is our rhetoric is not in line with what people would like to hear.”
I think that’s pretty much true. In recent years, “religious issues” have been limited in large part to abortion and gays. In this sense, Dems’ problem is more than just rhetorical; it’s policy oriented. As such, the Dems approach is a two-tier strategy: expand the definition of “religious issues” to include progressive/religious values and cater our message to include language that resonates in faith communities.
It sounds like Dem leaders are already on the right track.