Has Tim Kaine Shown Democrats How To Reach The Promised Land?

Terry Mattingly at GetReligion wonders whether Tim Kaine's gubernatorial victory in Virginia last Tuesday provides a roadmap for showing Democrats how to "get religion":

Without a doubt, the most interesting religion plot in last week’s election coverage was the victory of Democrat Timothy Kaine in the Virginia gubernatorial race over Republican Jerry Kilgore. Democrats haven’t been this fired up about God talk and values since the early years of “The West Wing.”

The faith element in Kaine’s daring campaign — he even bought time for ads on Christian radio stations — was highlighted in the Washington Post early and often this week. Kaine was presented as a kind of moderate Moses, poised to lead his party back into the promised land of Middle America.

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In effect, Kaine played what could be called the “Mario Cuomo” card, saying that he held conservative beliefs but that he could not force them on the public square.

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The religious left is beginning to get its rhetorical act together, but there are no signs of actual changes on what the Democratic Party might support in terms of compromise legislation on the hot-button religious, moral and cultural issues. What is changing are the words and the images, not the political ideas and actions.

Words will almost certainly not be enough to attract believers caught up in the faith-based battles that have dominated recent elections, noted Los Angeles Times columnist Rosa Brooks. Religious conservatives, in both political parties, want more than words.

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