The New Religious Right

DALLASNEWS.COM -- A generation ago, one of the most dependable voting blocs in American politics – the labor movement – began to fracture. Union leaders bitterly opposed the presidential candidacy of Ronald Reagan, but a funny thing happened on the way to the voting booth: Many in the union rank-and-file voted for the Republican. Thus were the Reagan Democrats born, working-class voters who abandoned the Democratic Party as cultural issues began to displace economic concerns as the driving force in U.S. politics.

We may be seeing the same thing happening today with the religious right, which, like organized labor used to be for the Democrats, has for nearly 30 years been a solid base for the GOP. More...