Reply #20: That's why the continuing growth of the Religious Left is so important.

[TayTay]

The Religious Left will never be the same as the Religious Right. (Lefties are just different.) But there are values that are being ignored by the RW values pushers. They are ignoring poverty and the near total Biblical command to care for the poor. There is a growing environmental movement among the Evangelical Churches that is not getting any results from the Rethugs and is ready to turn to the Dems for help.

The '04 race is likely to be one of the most significant races of my entire lifetime. It's not just the race itself, but all the ripples that it sent out. I think it was the left's 'Goldwater 1964' race in terms of how it will shape the future of the Dem party. A huge amount of stuff came to the forefront. I think '04 was the highpoint of the Republican coalition that has been building since 1964. I think the fissures are starting to crack wide open in the Repub coalitions and that it will become harder and harder to hold these factions together. The Repubs cannot respond to requests from their base on immigration (this is a huge split in the Repub Party right now) and it cannot continue to pretend that it is Christian when it neglects a poverty agenda. These factions are tearing the PArty apart.

'04 was also a watershed moment for the Left. We cannot do things the way we used to. The country has changed. The Dems have to learn how to communicate their core goals and agenda to a different country and to voters who are not in unions or in big cities and who don't have the old system that served the Dems so well in the past. Dems will adapt or die. (Obviously, I think they will adapt.)