Whats Wrong with District 33?

Last night I attended a District 33 Democrat Party Meeting. We puzzled about how the Democrats could take back the District. Jim Kusler did an excellent presentation of his analysis of the voting patterns of the District. In the middle of the night I woke up with back pain and started thinking about what has changed in this area. Why can't we elect Democrats? The number of votes needed is small, under three hundred with the right circumstances. Jim pointed out that with the right effort it could be done. Late at night it hit me what the change was. It may seem preposterous, but religion in my mind had a lot to do with it. When I moved here in 1976 the communities were primarily Lutheran, and Catholic. These are fairly middle of the road religions with relatively rational people. However, when the big construction projects brought thousands of outsiders to the area, many of the locals along with the outsiders became infected with fundamentalism. Baptist churches and other new strains of religion to the area began to crop up everywhere. Drive around Beulah, or Hazen, and you will see numerous off brand churches that never existed before the boom. What does this have to do with the election of Democrats? All of us recall how the Republicans took advantage of the fundamentalist. The Republicans successfully demonized Democrats. Voting Democrat has been given the taint of sin in these churches. You don't have to talk to one of these fundamentalist preachers long to realize they basically feel Democrats are inherently evil. Speak with the followers of these people and you will soon find they are not going to vote for a Democrat. Ask them why, and they cannot answer you. It is just a faith issue that you are not going to overcome. Most of these people firmly believe God is a Republican. I could go on and give you details of conversations I have had with these preachers, and I can assure you they have a firm grip on their parishioners, and their vote. There is one ray of hope. The fundamentalist slowly came to realize how they were abused by the Bush administration. I think reaching these people is next to impossible, but would be key to winning an election.