{"id":2559,"date":"2008-05-12T10:01:23","date_gmt":"2008-05-12T15:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2559"},"modified":"2008-05-12T10:01:23","modified_gmt":"2008-05-12T15:01:23","slug":"much-ado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2559","title":{"rendered":"Much Ado"},"content":{"rendered":"

Simple truism of the American mainstream media; the faintest move to the left will be portrayed as a major tectonic change in American politics (while any drift to the right will be regarded as an anomaly or pathology).<\/p>\n

One classic example; when Ed Schultz “went national” four years ago, he had six stations; Minneapolis, Fargo, and a bunch of small rural towns.\u00a0 Joe Soucheray had a bigger network at that time.\u00a0 And yet Schultz got a raving full-bore-hype showcase on the Today<\/em> show, complete with Katie Couric cooing “is he the left’s answer to Rush Limbaugh?”.<\/p>\n

Six stations.<\/p>\n

Of course, that’s as nothing compared to the cacaphony any time any “traditionally Republican” group sheds any demographic dandruff.<\/p>\n

Which brings us to this headline:\u00a0 “Evangelicals Flee the GOP<\/a>“. \u00a0 That’d be pretty serious news, if were true…:<\/p>\n

Michael Dudley is the son of a preacher man.<\/p>\n

He’s a born-again Christian with two family members in the military. He grew up in the Bible Belt, where almost everyone he knew was Republican. But this fall, he’s breaking a handful of stereotypes: He plans to vote for Democrat Barack Obama.<\/p>\n

“I think a lot of Christians are having trouble getting behind everything the Republicans stand for,” said Dudley, 20, a sophomore at Seattle Pacific University.<\/p>\n

Dudley’s disenchantment with the GOP isn’t unique among young, devoutly Christian voters.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Er, I’m sure it’s not – inasmuch as the GOP does, always has, and always will poll weakest among “the young”; Churchill’s dictum (“a man who’s not a liberal at 20 has no heart; a man who’s not a conservative at 40 has no brain”) is as true now as ever.\u00a0 Whether being “an evange
\nStill – could it be true?\u00a0 Could young evangelicals be fleeling the GOP?<\/p>\n

What is the nature of this catastrophic exodus<\/em>? (I add emphasis):<\/p>\n

According to a September 2007 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 15 percent of white evangelical<\/strong>s between 18 and 29, a group traditionally a shoo-in for the GOP, say they no longer identify with the Republican Party.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Traditionally a shoo-in?”<\/p>\n

Since when?<\/p>\n

If 15 percent of that group “don’t identify with the GOP” now?\u00a0 Fine – what was that number in 2004?\u00a0 2000?\u00a0 1996?<\/p>\n

We don’t know – because, I suspect, the answer would show what a non-story this is.<\/p>\n

Or would, if it needed to – since, like most of those “[name your group] are deserting the GOP’ stories, further reading shows there’s really no there there.<\/p>\n

But, Howard Dean, don’t count your chickens quite yet. College-age and 20-something Christians may be leaving the GOP, but only 5 percent of young evangelicals have joined the Democrats, according to the Pew survey. The other 10 percent are wandering the political wilderness, somewhere between “independent” and “unaffiliated.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So in other words, out out of six <\/em>evangelicals in an age group that society-wide\u00a0traditionally doesn’t vote GOP<\/em>, claim to be falling out with the party – and of them<\/em>, only one in three<\/em> is actually jumping to the Tics?<\/p>\n

The real news would seem to be “Among Young Evanglicals, the GOP has a 17-1 (85%05%) Majority”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I mean, wouldn’t it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Simple truism of the American mainstream media; the faintest move to the left will be portrayed as a major tectonic change in American politics (while any drift to the right will be regarded as an anomaly or pathology). One classic example; when Ed Schultz “went national” four years ago, he had six stations; Minneapolis, Fargo, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-republicans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}