The Democratic Party has a “religious illiteracy” problem that prevents them from reaching out to evangelicals, according to a former Democratic staffer.
Michael Wear, a former Obama White House staffer, explained three reasons why the Democratic Party fails to reach out to evangelical voters or voters with different theologies.
Wear, speaking with The Atlantic, pointed out that many young Democrats don’t know how to discuss or deal with religious topics. This “illiteracy” contributes to why Democrats fail to reach out to evangelicals, Wear explained.
“It’s tied to the demographics of the country: More 20- and 30-year-olds are taking positions of power in the Democratic Party,” Wear went on. “They grew up in parts of the country where navigating religion was not important socially and not important to their political careers.”
Wear also mentioned the current political climate stops Democrats from reaching out to people with varying theological beliefs. Much of politics consists of trying to make people afraid, Wear maintained.
“It’s much easier to make people scared of evangelicals, and to make evangelicals the enemy, than trying to make an appeal to them,” Wear explained.
Also, Democrats sometimes believe that reaching out to evangelicals might hinder what they want to achieve politically, Wear explained.
“They think, in some ways wrongly, but in other ways rightly, that it would put constraints around their policy agenda,” Wear said. “Reaching out to evangelicals doesn’t mean you have to become pro-life. It just means you have to not be so in love with how pro-choice you are, and so opposed to how pro-life we are.”
Trump won approximately 80 percent of the white evangelical vote, according to exit polls from the 2016 election. Religious leaders such as Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins and Ralph Reed came out in support of Trump during his campaign.
Follow Amber on Twitter
Send tips to amber@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.