From Left Field

Conservatives have seized on the notion that the "moral values" of the religious right determined the recent election. As Frank Rich of the New York Times points out, however, "There's only one problem with the storyline proclaiming that the country swung to the right on cultural issues in 2004…it is fiction." According to a new poll co-sponsored by the Center for American Progress, Res Publica and Pax Christi, there actually is a new silent majority in America: a coalition of religious moderates, progressives and other non-traditional religious voters. "This bloc of religious voters constitutes 54 percent of the electorate and holds very similar moderate-to-progressive views on domestic and national security issues" such as economic justice and the war in Iraq. By comparison, religious conservatives make up less than a quarter of the national electorate. (For more on the changing focus of the new "silent majority," read the new op-ed by American Progress's John Podesta and John Halpin.)