ONCE, WHILE my friend and I were stopped at a red light, she spotted a group of anti-abortion protestors picketing on the street corner. She immediately rolled down her window and commenced screaming at them, and they soon shrieked back. The incident lasted only a few painfully loud minutes before the light changed, but it illustrated rather succinctly for me how well Democrats and evangelical Christians have gotten along in the past few years.
With issues like abortion and gay marriage pervading public debate, evangelicals have been flocking to the Republican Party over the past two decades. According to a survey cited in The Washington Post, in 1987, 29 percent of white evangelicals identified themselves as Democrats, with only 34 percent calling themselves Republicans. Today, Republicans hold a sizable 51-22 advantage. But while Republicans and many evangelicals remain in lock step over domestic social issues, in recent years they have developed substantial disagreements over foreign policy. Democrats have an opportunity to take advantage of this schism and peel away a few evangelical voters by advocating their own moral foreign policy, and they can do it without sacrificing their own liberal values.
For years, evangelicals have been concerned about fair trade issues and ensuring that workers, both in this country and abroad, are protected from exploitation and extreme poverty. The Bush administration and Republicans in general, on the other hand, have championed free trade policies at every opportunity and have done little more than pay lip service to global poverty issues. Agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its Central American counterpart CAFTA, both of which were pushed hard by Republicans, have done much for corporate profits at the expense of laborers in foreign nations. Many religious organizations, such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, have been at the forefront of efforts to address these concerns, but their involvement has often avoided the political realm, instead putting together their own programs for aiding global poverty. Democrats can harness this concern by sharpening their stance on fair trade issues and taking aim at the deficiencies of NAFTA and similar agreements.
Another issue that most evangelicals are even more upset with the Republican leadership about is the ongoing genocide in Darfur. Distracted by his other commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Bush clearly hasn't made stopping the atrocities in western Sudan one of his priorities, and evangelicals have noticed. "We cannot save the 400,000 whom we have already lost, but we can prevent further loss of life for the millions living on the cusp of death, battling starvation and militia attacks," said Geoff Tunnicliffe, International Director of the World Evangelical Alliance. Democrats can make a compelling case that America can and should exert more pressure on both Sudan and the United Nations to fully address the conflict. By making a concerted effort to bring Darfur back into the public eye, Democrats will tell evangelicals that not only do they share their concerns but they're willing to act on them.
The same goes for climate change, an issue that Republican leaders have scarcely acknowledged. Many evangelical leaders, as they've learned more about the issue, have split with the party and declared a need for more action. A statement signed by 86 evangelical Christian leaders that was released back in February read, "Millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors.
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