They were blind but now...

In a Washington Monthly piece whose WWJD-spinoff title I do not care to encourage by repeating, Amy Sullivan reports on evangelicals leaving the Republican party.

Randy Brinson is a moderate Republican evangelical who set up Redeem The Vote, an evangelical analogue to MTV's Rock The Vote with Christian bands promoting voter registration and political involvement. "Redeem the Vote registered more voters than all of the efforts of the Christian Right heavyweights—Focus on the Family, the Southern Baptist Convention, American Family Association, and the Family Research Council—combined." (my bold) But when he joined Christian Conservatives for a meeting in the wake of electoral victory Brinson bristled at their hard line. Disillusioned, he was contacted by Democrats desperate to win back moral values voters. Some of this is hinted at in Redeem The Vote's mission statement.

Dabbling in politics outside the Republican party Brinson had a conversion experience:

"The newly converted are the most zealous, sharing the good news with gusto to any and all comers. Every few days, Randy Brinson calls me with another revelation. Republicans? “The power structure in the Republican Party is too entrenched with big business. It's not with evangelicals—they're a means to an end.” The Christian Right? “They just want to keep the culture war going because it raises a lot of money for them.” Abramoff? “Evangelicals were being used as pawns to promote a big money agenda.” His fellow evangelicals? “Can't they see that Republicans are just pandering to them??” He once was blind, but now he sees.

What sets Brinson apart from other disgruntled evangelicals is that he has an infrastructure at his disposal. Although Redeem the Vote is still engaged in voter registration activities, Brinson has expanded its mission, branching out into issue advocacy and using the organizational capability developed during the campaign to mobilize evangelicals at a moment's notice. Last year, when a Republican state senator led an effort to shift money from Alabama's education trust fund to more conservative causes, Brinson generated nearly 60,000 email messages—nearly half of the state senate district. It didn't take long for the legislator to cry “uncle” and leave the funds for public education."

The Religious Right may just have lost the next generation of evangelicals to the Democrats, or even better to being swinging voters who vote on the issues.

The full article is long but is an inspiring glimpse of what may be. Evangelicals are highly organised and well funded, they know how to put out a voting bloc. If that bloc didn't dogmatically go Left or Right but had thought out views on each of the issues and voted accordingly it'd be a sight to see, I mean a sight!

These are the kind of people who can stand up to the crude lowest common denominator politics we've seen recently. They have the infrastructure and the experience in educating a whole subculture. As they begin to realise that politics cannot be ignored and it cannot be left to hacks like Dobson, Colson, Falwell, Robertson and their ilk we could see an incredible political shift take place.

Related Link