False Sense of Maturity

Before the election, there was lots of talk about how the evangelicals might vote more Democratic, and that the Jewish vote could switch to the Republicans. But the CNN exit polling proves that there were no major changes in how different religious groups voted, and all the talk was overblown. Some examples:

–McCain won the white born-again vote 74% to 24%

–Obama won the Jewish vote 78% to 21%.

–Obama won the Catholic vote 54% to 45%.

–Among people with no religious preference, Obama won 75% to 23%.

–McCain won a majority of the vote from people who go to church at least once a week. For people who went to church monthly or less, Obama won a majority.

These numbers are similar to the past few elections. It’s true that Obama made up some ground among religious voters, such as winning 43% of weekly churchgoers compared to the 39% that John Kerry won. But then again, Obama received a lot more votes that Kerry, so this is just another sign of the Democrats success this time around. It looks like the Republicans are still the party of God, and the Democrats are still the party of God-lite.