Howard Dean: Fully One-Third of White Evangelical Christian Vote Tuesday Went to Democrats

Watching Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman (and my former governor as well as my preferred 2004 presidential candidate) Howard Dean with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show just now netted me information I did not know: that one in every three white Christian evangelicals who voted in the mid-term election on Tuesday cast a vote for Dems.

At first blush, this sounds surprising, largely because of the stereotype many of us (sometimes, myself included) have about such voters. The media always labels them as wildly pro Republican and so do lots of us.

However, while granted we did not hear from them often in the media, I've both seen in news reports and communicated personally with many who identify themselves as white evangelicals who go against the grain of a James Dobson or (God forbid!) a Ted Haggard, a Jerry Falwell, or a Pat Robertson.

For example, those I've had the pleasure to speak with have told me they support:

• stem cell research and other medical initiatives to improve quality of life and relieve suffering
• an individual's right to choose (everything from gay marriage and gay adoptions to assisted suicide for the terminally ill, a woman's decision whether to carry a embryo to term, remove illegality for use of medical marijauna, et al)
• the teaching of true science like evolution in public schools
• keeping religion out of government and government out of religion

As one woman recently wrote me in email, she deeply loves her faith and would not - due to that faith - easily terminate a pregnancy, she believes it is not her or her church's business to try to prevent another woman from making a different choice. Likewise, she wrote that she very much wanted her two school age children to understand science that is not watered down or twisted around; she believes in evolution.

I go into this detail because I think all of those of us progressives feel like our intelligence has been insulted by the Bushies' rampant blather of religion and God to limit even something as core as the rights spelled out by the Constitution. But we also need to avoid assuming that all those with a fundamentalist bent have checked their brains at the door.