"These voters weren't born again yesterday."

That's Ruth Marcus, in an insightful piece in the Washington Post. (Isn't it a great line?)

More to the point of her column, Marcus talks about Democratic efforts to woo evangelical Christians, particularly those whose theology and politics tend to be more centrist. She sees dangers for the Dems who, in their rush to win over evangelicals, could violate their core principles or engage in phonyism.

It's not like tilting at windmills for Democrats to go after substantial evangelical support, though. Back in the days of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., the Democratic Party was the one that spoke most frequently in Biblical terms, portraying its emphasis on justice as expressions of America's Christian heritage. Evangelicals and Roman Catholics were historically part of the liberal Democratic coalition going back at least to the Franklin Roosevelt era.

But things have changed. Many would argue that the Democrats have left their historic mission of giving voice to the voiceless with their intransigent pro-choice position on abortion, a stance so off-putting to many evangelicals that they're be unable to hear the Dems on other issues.

Writes Marcus:

To some extent, Democrats could help themselves with evangelicals simply by showing up -- at the megachurches, on Christian radio and in other venues where Democrats have been scarce...[But] occasional drop-bys and clunky dropping of biblical references aren't going to do the trick. These voters weren't born again yesterday.

Rather, the Democrats' discussion with evangelicals has to get beyond linguistic "reframing" to substantive areas where the Democrats and evangelicals can find common ground: poverty, the environment, Darfur.

The question is whether differences on the much hotter-button issues of abortion and gay rights are nonetheless deal-breakers. For the traditionalist evangelicals, almost certainly they are. But some centrists may be reachable; they may be opposed to same-sex marriage, for example, but more supportive of other equal rights measures for gays.

It will be interesting to see what happens as we approach the 2008 elections. Both Hillary Clinton, whose politics has been deeply influenced by her Methodist background, and Mark Warner, comfortable with public discussions of his faith, will undoubtedly make major overtures to the Evangelical Christian community as they run for their party's presidential nomination.