Question: Why do religious voters perceive Republicans as providing answers

[Tony_FLADEM]

to the nations moral culture and social environment? Has this been based on results i.e. has the abortion rate declined under Republicans? Is it because of the language some Republicans use? Or maybe it's that conservative states have many social problems and they need someone to blame, so they blame liberals and Hollywood?

I think these voters have low standards and are easily swayed by language and perceived personal attributes instead of actual results.

What do you think?

[AntiCoup2K4]

1. It's because the pukes know all the right wing buzzwords

Rove has taught the Chimp to be the master of the fundagelical language, so they believe he's one of them, despite the fact that every thing the moron says or does is in direct opposition to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

As for abortion rates, they were actually lower under Clinton than they are under the Chimp. Economic reasons, of course.

[Nite Owl]

2. My theory is that the message

from the repukes is a message based on division and hate and this appeals to the worse side in people. It's easier to just hate someone because they are the 'wrong' color or sexual orientation. They are different from them and it's harder to do the moral thing and look beyond the hatefulness. It's how people on the right think and this is exploited and confirmed by their message and thus makes them feel good about the way they think.

[cdb]

3. Sitting ducks

They are stupid americans. They have no sense of history, no culture beyond tv and walmart and they bullshit they have heard from the pulpit. Since they are under educated and they never read, they willingly swallow all the shit they are fed. The MSM helps by feeding them pablum about Jacko, Brittney and all the other diversions they can throw at them...

[LdyGuique]

10. While excessively stringent, this particular answer has some strong

merit. It's a cultural issue. When I was in the Library school program, one of the statistics that stuck was "9 out of 10 people will ask a 'trusted source' first for answers." This means that people will ask someone whom they know most of the time.

If one has already been acculturated to accepting dogma from the pulpit and one's social group, it's natural to accept their "authoritative" sources, i.e., the religious leaders and the political leaders they support. Many of the ultra religious spend enormous amounts of time in church, going to study groups, and socializing in special groups. They hear very little "other" opinions as this has become their world. They even send their children to religious schools or home school them.

[kevinmc]

4. The Republicans Pay their Leaders......

If it wasn't for these certain Church Leaders getting Taxpayer Money these people wouldn't care. "Faith Based" money greases the wheel of Extremist.

[etherealtruth]

5. I'm going to agree with a combination of 1and 2 (above)...

... plus I'll add a little bit of "the left got lazy and didn't actively court organized religion," many of which support the democrat position on a majority of issues-----which goes back to the first response that we let the repukes step in and claim all the "support" for religion (which they no more TRULY support than does my right shoe)

[Inland]

6. Personal attributes count for a lot, since we elect people to office.

Just saying. Therefore the republicans "provide answers", in the form of lip service and saying religious shibboleths, not in terms of answers like results. After all, "God will take care of it if we pray and elect a godly man" is AN answer, an answer that some will like.

[Atman]

7. Because pubs speak in gobbledygook and undecipherable b.s., too?

After all, a Bush speech is almost like scripture...the actual words are almost foreign, yet it sounds like it says something, and there is probably a lesson in there somewhere, but you're never really sure what the heck you've heard/read until the preacher (Scotty McClellan) deciphers it for you.

[flamin lib]

8. It is all about the use of language.

Newt Gingritch started the propaganda war back when he was in power. Use this list of words to describe Democrats and this one for Republicans. Republicans "stand strong against activist judges" while Democrats are obstructionists.

Karl Rove refined it with the use of organized and well funded think tanks to frame the debate. Think tanks invented "partial birth abortion" and "death tax". We just aren't there yet in the language R&D department.

Howard Dean is right, he who frames the debate wins the debate.

We need to characterize the inheritance tax as the "Paris Hilton Tax", Border security as National Border Defense and Private Accounts as the Wall street Profit Fund.

We desperately need our own think tanks!

[dorktv]

9. Seriously?

1. Language can do a lot to make you act in a certain way. Reading George LaKoff's Moral Politics was a real eye opener. You saw how the Republicans are able to talk in a way that convinces people to things like vote for those people.

2. Party support. The Republicans (or at least the ones in charge) really really support candidates who toe the party line all the way down to insignifigant offices. We had something like 9 party staffers out for Tempe's Mayoral race. 9! For a minor race in Tempe!

[Stinky The Clown]

11. Fire and Brimstone

That's not a religious notion, per se. The people who support them are inherently conservative. Not insanely so, but on *that* side of the line, to be sure. If you're in your 40's, just think of your aunt or uncle. Nice people, loving, kind .... all the good attributes. But they tend not to think deeply about things, preferring instead to see things emotionally. (Tsk, tsk, isn't it awful that people on welfare cheat the system by using their neighbor's kids when the case worker shows up. Isn't it disgusting that two men (or women) want to have sex with each other?)

The repugs play right to this part of them. If 'your aunt or uncle' ever stopped and *really* thought about things, they'd be on side. But they don't. Instead they blindly watch Fox news (cuz all their friends do) and take what they see as the truth.

Again, these are not hateful people. They're not stingy people. They're not necessarily religious people. They're not inherently bigots. They *are* inherently good people.

But they've been told that we're weak, evil, god hating, fag loving, molycoddleing people who would rather give everyone what they want, no matter the cost. And they're not that. Not in their minds, anyhow.

Just as an example ... (NO Kerry debates here, okay, I'm on **your**side) ... talking about Kerry throwing his medals away. that little epoisode went miles and miles to hit them right smack in their patriotic guts. They **know** Viet Nam was a mistake. But the symbolism of that just hit them the right way.

And the rugs know exactly how to play this to their advantage.

They go for emotion and images. We go for truth.

No one wants to take the time to learn the truth. The repubs pull out the kinds of stories that Reader Digest puts in their hero of the month story (what's that called .... I can't remember?). Absoluteism. Heroism. Flag waving. Its hokey .... but it plays.

So we lose. Happens all the time.