Beating the Religious Right at its Own Game

[lees1975]

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/03/how-democrats-can-win-on-margins-and.html

Democrats have never really been good at doing this kind of thing, because they are inclusive by nature, and hard lines don't sit well with them. But this mid-term will be a "do whatever it takes to win" scenario, and Republicans are handing them several gift-wrapped packages with "this plays well in Peoria" written all over them. There's everything associated with January 6th, including images of people in "Jesus" T-shirts and with crosses and Christian symbols on flags and banners joining a mob attacking the US Capitol and giving their endorsement and support to a seditious insurrection. Now, there's Ukraine and Trump's whole sad record of supporting Putin against the fledgling democracy.

[RussBLib]

1. so many targets

guts required

[Diamond_Dog]

2. I have some wacked out conservative family members

They will just shrug and say that the rioters with the Jesus T shirts and the crosses are a small minority and don’t represent all “conservatives “. And, they will say that the “liberal media” twisted Trump’s words to make it sound like he was always praising Putin. They will admit that Trump has an “abrasive personality “ but people forget about all the “good things he did.”

There really is no reaching them. Their minds are gone. Sorry to sound so depressing.

[Ferrets are Cool]

3. You are right, there is no reaching THEM, but

a good, sincere message could go a long way to urge fence sitters and independents to vote for Democrats.

[lees1975]

6. The DNC, Biden's Presidential Campaign, and state affiliates need

someone with inside knowledge and experience to work with the marketing and campaign people to craft messages and sound bytes to drive some wedges in places where they can work on dislodging some votes along the margins, including the fence sitters and independents.

[hippywife]

4. This won't move them.

"There's everything associated with January 6th, including images of people in "Jesus" T-shirts and with crosses and Christian symbols on flags and banners joining a mob attacking the US Capitol..."

It will move the true walk-the-walk believers, and already does, but not the topsy-turvy thinking of the right wing evangelicals. To them, their "cause" is more important. They see all of this as a battle for the soul of the country and these people as brave soldiers and martyrs.

[lees1975]

5. I've seen this happening

And yes, it is among the true "walk-the-walk" believers, and it would be difficult to measure the full impact. I'm currently in a congregation that is growing because of a variety of ex-religious righters who left a more militant congregation to escape churches where the lines between faith and politics have not only blurred, but where the two things have merged into a new cult religion, and they've seen it happen. They are mostly people who have studied Christian theology enough to know what's authentic and can identify the politics creeping in. The largest Evangelical denomination in the country, the Southern Baptist Convention, has lost 2 million church members in one decade, more than 1.2 million of those since 2016, over 300,000 last year alone. Many are leaving because of the political religious right's influence. Not all of them are going to vote Democratic but those that are change the margins. Georgia, which has the second largest membership of Southern Baptists in the country, flipped in 2020. North Carolina, the third most, came within a few thousand votes of flipping and Democrats picked up the governorship and several legislative seats. Even a 1 or 2% shift would win some local elections.