Voter religious polarization

Increased religious polarization is shown in US voting patterns:

Voters in last year's presidential election showed a new polarization within some religious faiths, a fact that may make it all the harder for Democrats to recapture the White House, according to a report released on Thursday.

President Bush "depended heavily on traditionalist Christians, while (Democratic opponent John) Kerry had a more diverse coalition characterized by minority faiths, the unaffiliated and modernist (more liberal) Christians," said the report.

It was probably easier for the Republicans to mobilize their more homogeneous coalition than for the Democrats to mobilize their more diverse group, said the survey from the University of Akron's Bliss Institute of Applied Politics.

Polarization within religions is relatively new, the report said, and Bliss Institute director John Green said this development may make it more difficult to forge coalitions on social issues.

Mainline Protestants, who traditionally lean Republican, divided their votes between Bush and Kerry, giving the Democrat the highest level of support from that area in recent times, the report said.

Once a bedrock of Democratic support, non-Latino Catholics last year gave more than half of their vote to Bush. Green also found more support than four years earlier from black Protestants and Latino Catholics.

He said Bush captured votes from middle-of-the-road Christians, especially Catholics, people the Democrats need to court in the future.

Green told Reuters the findings indicate Democrats have their work cut out if they want to win back the White House four years from now.