Backlash to Pete Buttigieg’s Christmas tweet and the religious divide it exposes washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/… // I have been going through the studies at Religion In Public Life written by scholars like Paul Djupe & Ryan Burge who base their analyses on large-scale panel data. The
2/ idea that a Democrat is going to appeal on theological, let alone partisan or ideological grounds, is like thinking you can spit into a hurricane and not get wet. White Evangelical Protestants are religious outliers in study after study. Black Protestants share conservative
3/ religious values--which is why it makes no sense for secular Democrats to attack religion for the sake of attacking religion--but their history and relationship with the federal government leads them to vote Democratic. But, Buttiege's effort, in my opinion, whatever degree of
4/ sincerity he may have in his beliefs, is just click-bait politics. He is picking a fight with WEPs because it generates pushback and headlines. Look at the Religion In Public Life studies. There are evangelical, charismatic, pentecostal denominations & non-denominations voting
5/ GOP at around 75%. The assorted WEPs that vote Democratic are going to vote Democratic for a wide variety of reasons and policies. They like a candidate who is religiousy, but Mayor Pete is trying to make the Democratic Party into a mirror-image of the GOP. He actually appears
6/ to want a religious litmust test. Why else does he keep comparing himself to Pence, as if he is the religious counter to Pence? The longer Buttiege campaigns, the more I dislike him.
