This IS Interesting
Dan Gilgoff reports on a new “values voters” group, from an old name:
Ralph Reed, the Republican operative who built the Christian Coalition into a potent political force in the 1990s by mobilizing evangelicals and other religious conservatives and who did similar work to help George W. Bush win two presidential elections, is quietly launching a group aimed at using the Web to mobilize a new generation of values voters. In addition to targeting the GOP’s traditional faith-based allies—white evangelicals and observant Catholics—the group, called the Faith and Freedom Coalition, will reach out to Democratic-leaning constituencies, including Hispanics, blacks, young people, and women.
“This is not your daddy’s Christian Coalition,” Reed said in an interview Monday. “It’s got to be more brown, more black, more female, and younger. It’s critical that we open the door wide and let them know if they share our values and believe in the principles of faith and marriage and family, they’re welcome.”
Hmmm. Interesting. What about “more Mormon?” I’m betting there is room. Consider:
Reed is serving as chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition and says he has filed papers with the Internal Revenue Service to register it as a 501(c)(4), a tax-free designation that permits lobbying and certain political activities. Gary Marx, Reed’s deputy at the 2004 Bush campaign and Mitt Romney’s conservative outreach director in 2008, will help advise the group. Jack St. Martin, a former top Republican National Committee staffer, is running day-to-day operations. [emphasis added]
Can an umbrella organization like say , “Yes on 8″ work on a national level? It should and it is much needed. Thoughts?
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coltakashi on 23 Jun 2009 at 3:09 pm #
Mormons certainly include “Hispanics, blacks, young people, and women.” Mormon women are actively engaged in volunteer leadership for adult women, teenagers, and children, and mobilize on short notice to help families hit by tragedies like illness and death. Because they get married earlier, and have larger families, Mormon demographics are skewed highly to youth (even with higher longevity attributed to avoidance of alcohol and tobacco), and those youth have been found to be strongly committed to their religious faith compared to their peers. Mormons are strongly represented in the US Hispanic community, served by Spanish-language congregations all over the US. The number of black Mormons is growing, with black Mormons leading congregations of all races, and it is not unusual for white Mormons to adopt black children (I have seen them in every congregation I have attended in recent years with people of child-rearing age).
So if all Hispanics, blacks, young people and women are welcome in this new organization, there will have to be some Mormons there, too. Maybe middle-aged Asian-American Mormon veterans like me will also be welcomed.
Seriously, any desire to build a broad-based coalition centered around a common cause of keeping American society safe for traditional moral values will have to open its doors to people of all religions, including Catholics, Mormons, Orthodox Jews, and Muslims. Reed and other leaders will need to remember that religious affiliation cuts across all lines of gender, age, and ethnicity.
CarlH on 24 Jun 2009 at 4:51 pm #
On the question of whether there is “room for Mormons,” the just released results of a new Pew Research poll measuring “Favorability of Leading Republicans” are somewhat heartening. Notwithstanding a lot of hand-wringing, dead trees, and vapid commentary, Romney’s positive-negative among Republican white evangelicals has climbed to 54-23 and among “all others” (Republicans) to 59-16.
There is one glaring aspect of this poll–where’s Huckabee? In a report on the Pew poll for The Atlantic, Mark Ambinder notes the exclusion and inserts results from a June 18 Public Policy Polling “automated poll” suggesting that Huckabee is way up there with Sarah Palin in his favorable ratings among Republicans.