Reply #25: In fact, I've tackled this very subject several times

[theHandpuppet]

There are several threads tucked away in my DU journal which address this particular conundrum.

Here is one:

Yet from another perspective...
Posted by theHandpuppet in General Discussion: Politics
Fri Oct 22nd 2004, 09:01 AM

To many folks in the rural mountain communities in WV, the impact of the church on their everyday lives is infinitely greater than that of the federal government. The church is their living community, where members depend on one another to see them through times of sickness and need. When disaster strikes, as it does all too often in the mountains, it is to the neighbor and the congregation these people turn, as one can't wait for the federal government to find you (and how much media coverage did the disastrous flooding this year in WV and eastern KY receive -- good thing it didn't happen in NY, eh, where people were touted by the media as "heroic" for enduring the horrible trial of losing power for a day!).

No, I don't think it's a matter of "not thinking" about how either party's agenda will effect them; the fact is, these are folks who have been largely abandoned by both parties, by their own federal govt. What has stood by them through thick and thin is their church, living and tangible. It is the source of their nourishment, the center of their social life, their one unshakable faith, yet it never asks more of them than they can give. These folks aren't voting Republican or Democratic, for those are mere labels for an abstract, but they are voting for their church. It's by adopting the image, rather than the substance, of the church that the Republicans have made such headway into previously Dem strongholds. "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." -- the book of Matthew

To truly understand what has happened (politically speaking) in places like WV there first has to be an understanding of the role the church has had and still plays in community life and some acknowledgment that these are the folks who will be "left behind" no matter which party takes office. Progressives and social activists can best establish some common ground in places like rural WV by working with rather than competing with the church as a *community* dynamic. I'm not talking about the slick, religious leeches like the Falwells and Robertsons, but the minister who delivers sermons on Sunday and digs coal on a Monday.

As a young Loretta Lynn once said, "I may be ignorant but I ain't stupid." Ask these folks to either abandon their political party or their church and I can tell you right now which one they'll choose. It matters not a whit whether I would personally agree with that decision, but I do understand where they're coming from.
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Here are a couple of other threads you muight find pertinent to the discussion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4641857&mesg_id=4646854

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4397294&mesg_id=4398664