After Obama’s win in Iowa, we waited eagerly for the poll numbers revealing the depth of his white evangelical support (non-white evangelicals already tend to vote Democratic). Huck surely dominated that demographic, but Obama must have taken a bite. We’ll never know; the same pollsters who counted evangelical votes for the GOP didn’t bother asking Democratic voters about their religious preferences. Faith-based Democrats want to see that changed, they say, because it’d reveal that their party has a religious base, too. Of course, it’d also strengthen their position within the party. Maybe it’d also persuade reporters to look at rightward trends in the Democratic Party. That’s not to say that religious voters are necessarily conservative, but that on many issues evangelicals are. Those who are now voting for Democrats are meeting them in the middle — and the compromise between evangelical moderation and faith-based Democrats is moving the party away not just from its commitment to, say, queer rights, but also from its traditional union base.

After Obama’s win in Iowa, we waited eagerly for the poll numbers revealing the depth of his white evangelical support (non-white evangelicals already tend to vote Democratic). Huck surely dominated that demographic, but Obama must have taken a bite. We’ll never know; the same pollsters who counted evangelical votes for the GOP didn’t bother asking Democratic voters about their religious preferences. Faith-based Democrats want to see that changed, they say, because it’d reveal that their party has a religious base, too. Of course, it’d also strengthen their position within the party. Maybe it’d also persuade reporters to look at rightward trends in the Democratic Party. That’s not to say that religious voters are necessarily conservative, but that on many issues evangelicals are. Those who are now voting for Democrats are meeting them in the middle — and the compromise between evangelical moderation and faith-based Democrats is moving the party away not just from its commitment to, say, queer rights, but also from its traditional union base.