Dem "Religious Revival" A Bust

Amy Sullivan, Slate, via RCP:

Democratic campaign trainings now smartly include tips for communicating with Catholic voters. Candidates are starting to appear on religious radio outlets. And Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has even stopped saying things to intentionally antagonize evangelicals.

Which is why it is startling that in the two years since this Democratic revival began, the party's faith-friendly image has dimmed rather than improved. The Pew Research Center's annual poll on religion and politics, released last week, shows that while 85 percent of voters say religion is important to them, only 26 percent of Americans think the Democratic Party is "friendly" to religion. That's down from 40 percent in the summer of 2004 and 42 percent the year before that—in other words, a 16-point plunge over three years.

Wow! Tips on how to communicate with Catholics! Howard Dean on his best behavior to not intentionally engage in religious bigotry! There are more touchingly ludicrous examples in this article.

Democrats have succeeded only in drawing more people's attention to their hostility to religion and their contempt for people of faith.