In the USA Today online article "Election reinforces USA's religious schism" it's noted that:
Exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Media Research/Mitofsky International showed clearly that the president draws much of his support from religious people:
* The president had the support of 78% of white evangelicals, 23% of the voters.
* Bush won 52% of the Roman Catholic vote on Tuesday, and got the support of 56% of white Catholics, defeating the first Catholic presidential candidate from a major party since John F. Kennedy. In 2000, Bush narrowly lost the Catholic vote.
* Bush was favored by 61% of people from all faiths who attend services weekly; they made up 41% of the electorate. Democrat John Kerry drew 62% of Americans who never attend worship, but they only accounted for 14% of voters.
* When respondents were asked to pick the one issue that mattered most in choosing a president, "moral values" ranked first at 22%, surpassing the economy (20 percent), terrorism (19 percent) and Iraq (15 percent).
Gay marriage bans were handily approved in all 11 states that held referendums, and analysts said that issue drove up turnout. "This was a high stakes election for those who support traditional moral values," said Geoffrey Layman, a University of Maryland political scientist.
We are a religious nation, and a nation that is mostly traditional in its moral values. We're all going to have to get used to this reality. For too long we've lived in a delusional fantasy world which discounted the impact of religious faith. Tuesday, 2 November, was our wakeup call.
Good morning, real world.
Posted by Clifton at November 4, 2004 10:48 PM | TrackBack