MANY RELIGIOUS RIGHT VOTERS ACTUALLY DID ABANDON THE GOP TUESDAY

All the predictions-- and warnings-- about how the Republican Party would lose substantial support from their religionist-right base came crashing down of the heads of those who not too long ago were bragging that they created their own-- and our own-- reality. Well, they actually did create this reality too-- through their misadventures, blatant hypocrisy, condescending attitude towards people of faith and their abandonment of the values that were most meaningful to these voters.

Whether the Democrats won them over or they were just disillusioned with Republicans, "the national exit polls," according to today's Washington Post, "told a dramatic story of changing views in the pews: Democrats recaptured the Catholic vote they had lost two years ago. They sliced the GOP's advantage among weekly churchgoers to 12 percentage points, down from 18 points in 2004 congressional races and 22 points in the 2004 presidential contest. Democrats even siphoned off a portion of the Republican Party's most loyal base, white evangelical Protestants," where there was a 7% shift in favor of Democratic candidates.

The Post managed to dig up a couple of evangelical leaders who have neither been caught in bed with young boys nor shown to be on the take from Jack Abramoff and these Republican operatives disguised as men of God generally "blamed corruption and big spending by Congress-- rather than the party's positions on social issues such as same-sex marriage-- for the GOP's defeat." One who hasn't been disgraced yet, a shady character named Dick Land (Southern Baptist Convention) claims the religionists are "fed up with the Republican leadership, particularly in the House. They're disgusted that Republicans came to Washington and failed to behave any better than Democrats once they got their snouts in the trough." James Dobson, the top Republican Party operative in the religionist movement, especially now that Ted Haggard has been banished for hiring male prostitutes and snorting meth, claims his voters stayed home because the Republicans in Congress haven't catered to them enough.

Whether by design or ignorance-- two overriding traits that always have to be considered when Dobson speaks-- he was dead wrong. "White evangelical Protestants turned out this week as heavily as they did in 2004, making up roughly 24 percent of the electorate both times." They were just more likely to vote for Democrats than in '04. Even religionist fanatics who have always catered to the most extreme elements of the religionist-right, politicians like Rick Santorum, John Hostettler, Jim Ryun and Felix Macacawitz all went down in flames. "In addition, voters in South Dakota overturned the nation's tightest abortion ban. In Missouri, they passed a measure supporting stem cell research. In Kansas, they defeated Phill Kline, an attorney general who had aggressively investigated abortion clinics... In Arizona this week, voters rejected a marriage amendment, the first time gay rights advocates have beaten such an initiative anywhere in the country."

New York's Jewish Weekly writes that the whole Christian right agenda is in shambles after the Republican defeat. Five Finger Louie (aka "Rev" Louis Shelton, a huckster who was in cahoots with Abramoff in ripping off unsuspecting Christians who he laughed at) was busy spinning the election results that he predicted would never come. "The issues that brought defeat, he said, had nothing to do with his movement. 'The issue is Iraq and the culture of corruption among a few Republican elected officials,' said Sheldon. 'It's very clear, we're here to stay. We're in it for the long haul. The assault on marriage, sexual predators and abortion are not going away." [He seems to forget that sexual predators reminds voters-- especially Christian-right voters of Mark Foley, Jim Kolbe, Dennis Hastert, Mitch McConnell, Ken Mehlman, Betty Montgomery and a host of other Republican officials who have been preaching an anti-gay agenda while... well, even if Five Finger Louie wants to make believe he doesn't watch the TV news, you know what they've been doing. And I'm not even mentioning Ted Haggard!