First, note her statement that Democrats need to work to convince religious people that it is possible they can be "people of moral values" and "Democrats." Kleiman argues that the generous reading of this to Vanderslice is that we need to do a better sales job. Duncan says that you would have had to have been asleep for the past six years to believe that the Republican Party - which tortures people, jails others without charge, allows American cities to be destroyed by natural disasters, and starts wars on a pretext - are the moral ones. If they haven't been asleep, what Vanderslice must be saying is that evangelicals have real, substantive concerns that Democrats are less moral than Republicans.
Indeed. The real issue, as I keep saying, is that "people believe different stuff." Faith and morality are lovely words, but their meanings vary greatly depending on who is mouthing them. Appeals to morality, with or without associated religious appeals, are fine but let's not pretend there is some universal agreed on morality.
White evangelicals and regular churchgoers are the most supportive of the Bush administration's Iraq policies. Their moral priorities are apparently different than mine.