When you think of religious voters, what party affiliation comes to mind?
It’s certainly not Democratic. Hillary Clinton, like other Dems, has realized that the Republicans have had a hold on the religious demographic for far too long, and is trying to change this. Obama has already been talking more openly about the role his Christian faith plays in his life for a while now, and it seems Hillary is now following suite.
The New York Times recently featured an article about Hillary’s faith. The article states that Hillary’s new religious overtures just might work to win over centrist voters, but will do very little with religious conservatives. Some of the tactics that Hillary is trying include talking about her faith (ie, how she carries a bible with her when she travels), hiring Burn Strider, an evangelical christian to do religious outreach, and speaking to religous opponents of abortion to show her respect for their stance, while still being a firm supporter of abortion rights.
So how is the public reacting? Some critics are dismissing Hillary’s new religious overtures as pure campaign strategy with little substance or faith to back it up. Others point to the fact that for her, religion means liberal-leaning Methodism, which supports activism but is very private and quiet about prayer, and some pundits challenged her “religious moralisms wrapped in New Age language”. However, it makes sense that Hillary would choose a religious path that was more focused on social activism than strict piety. As a child, she attended Sunday school, and later in life continued to give guest speeches at her local church’s Sunday classes. Hillary’s faith naturally rests on her activism in the public sphere, and it would be far more suspect if she was all of a sudden proclaiming to be intensely spiritual and devout. Lastly, Hillary mentions that her faith was instrumental in the days of Bill Clinton’s scandal and infidelity; it brought helped her find hope and, more importantly, forgiveness.
Hillar: I buy it. Your faith seems real to me.
I suppose that doesn’t rule out the fact that Hillary is playing her faith up for the public, or emphasizing it at this time in her campaign for strategic reasons. Though this seems shallow, you can only blame a politician for adjusting their image to what the public wants so much– at some point, you have to realize that they’ve got to play the game to win the presidency. Of course, it would be hard for a more religious person than myself to be so nonchalante about using religion as campaign strategy… I guess Hillary will have to try pretty hard to win them over.
