Drinkin' Dobson's Milkshake

Progressives are all up in arms today over James Dobson's impotent attack on Barack Obama.  I find this completely laughable.  Why?  Because Dobson is the old Evangelical movement.  He is a religious relic, in precisely the same way that George W. Bush is a political relic.  Moreover, Dobson is one of the most isolated and hated Evangelicals with a national profile today.  He fully embodies the embarrassment of the Evangelical embrace of George W. Bush that a vast majority of decent Evangelicals would LOVE to eject from their ranks.   The problem is that Dobson still wields a great deal of power, and few have been willing to break with him.  

The true beauty of Dobson's attack, is that it will likely have an effect opposite to what he intended.  Where Dobson hoped his ham-fisted action would stem the flow of evangelical exodus from the Republican to Democratic parties under Obama's banner, he may have opened the floodgates.  

Very simply, Obama is making inroads among evangelical voters of which Democrats in previous elections cycles could not have conceived.  By leading with values, and making a powerful and overt effort to reach out and redefine the issues important to evangelical voters, Barack Obama is ready to Drink Dobson's milkshake.

Start with the premise that the Republican coalition is fractured, which is clearly the case.  McCain may have the neocons, but the corporate cons and social conservatives are completely up for grabs in this election cycle.  Obama will outraise McCain, and he is completely dominating in terms of organization and turnout, pressing his advantage deep into traditionally republican territory.  But in an amazing turn of events, directly related to Obama's faith outreach, As of a few weeks ago, Obama stood poised to win the votes of as many as 40% of Evangelical voters.  
The best read on all of this comes from Evangelical agitator, turned progressive activist, Robert Schaeffer.  He writes:

Dobson has -- for eight years -- been George W. Bush's personal shill. In return Dobson has had ego-stoking "access" to the White House, or rather to the lackeys in the White House laughing at him but charged with stroking Dobson and the other pompous asses masquerading as religious leaders.

But the new generation of evangelicals is sick of being labeled as backward rednecks because of their association with fossils like Dobson. There are many evangelicals like Cizik too who are not all about homophobia, nationalism, war-without-end and American exceptionalism or the Republican Party. Like Cizik they believe that the America has a responsibility to do something about global warming, poverty, AIDS, human trafficking and other issues. They see through Dobson and the other so-called pro-life leaders, who have actually done nothing to reduce abortion. In fact Dobson has increased abortions because of his "abstinence only" crusade.

As a result of his power grabs and bullying of other evangelicals, not to mention his telling people how to vote and pointing them to the failed W, Dobson & Co. have zero credibility with a growing number of otherwise conservative evangelicals who happen--this year--to be looking favorably at Senator Obama's holistic Christian-based world view. Unlike Dobson they like Obama's theology just fine.

All that was missing to put the frosting on the Obama cake was for Dobson to attack him. For Obama to win all he needs to do is peel off a chunk of heretofore solid evangelical Republican votes. Dobson just handed Obama those votes.

Evangelicals are redefining how they choose to express their values in the public discourse.  The Dobson has shrunken the Christian worldview so far that it is unrecognizable to many in the movement.   It's no longer about abortion and gay-bashing.  Now a true pro-life agenda means stopping war, addressing extreme poverty and AIDS, and standing as good stewards of the environment.  

In short, Evangelical Christians have been dying to break away from the old, restrictive definition of what it means to be a person of faith in America, and now no lesser profile than James Dobson himself has made it perfectly acceptable to vote for a Democrat named Barack Obama.

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