Faith and Political Issues

I’m not a fan of the block quote white box now at work on the Patheos blogs, so I will be using italics for quotations in order to make it clear it is not my words but someone else’s.

Barna:

April 18, 2012 – Which political issues will have the greatest influence on voters’ decision of which presidential candidate to support? The answer to that question depends in part on the person’s spiritual leanings. A new nationwide survey by the Barna Group, conducted among people likely to vote in November’s election, indicates that the worldview of different religious segments of the population significantly impacts the issues they care about the most.

Among all likely voters, regardless of their faith inclinations, the most influential issues are health care (said to influence their candidate selection “a lot” by 74% of likely voters), tax policy (62%), employment policies and strategies (54%), and plans regarding the nation’s dependence upon foreign oil (52%).

An analysis of reactions to the dozen issues posed to survey respondents shows that the areas least likely to impact people’s choice of a president are candidate positions on gay marriage (31%), environmental policy (30%), and abortion (29%)….

The ranking of these issues by likely voters raises some intriguing possibilities regarding the substance of forthcoming campaign emphases by Democratic nominee Barack Obama and presumed Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

The most important issue to likely voters – health care – is one which both candidates have been recognized as originating, but which neither candidate wants to take credit for. The high level of public interest in the issue mandates that significant attention be devoted to it, but both candidates will have to tread delicately on the issue.

The incumbent president is not likely to invest many resources in touting his record on people’s second and third most important issues – taxes and jobs – while neither major-party candidate seems comfortable discussing the fourth critical issue (oil prices, foreign dependency, and drilling).

The political pundits are claiming that to attract the Hispanic vote candidates will have to promote an attractive package of immigration reforms. Ironically, the research shows that immigration policy is a more significant issue among white voters than among Hispanic likely voters.

The so-called “social issues” of greatest interest to Christian evangelicals – i.e., abortion, gay marriage – are likely to be substantially downplayed, if not altogether shelved, now that the party nomination has been secured by Mr. Romney. In his efforts to broaden his base, Republican strategists fear that paying continued attention to such issues will only narrow his appeal.

Perhaps the biggest loser in the forthcoming contest will be environmental policies. While there is a passionate constituency related to those issues, it is a small segment of voters. A huge majority of the voting public is indifferent to such matters, essentially rendering speeches and promises related to environmentalism irrelevant to the goals of the campaigns: to solidify the support of existing supporters and to win over the hearts of the undecided electorate.