I have been trying to write something on this for a few weeks, essentially to ask for advice. I think this year could be the moment when the “southern strategy” and its descendants are put to rest. I have been thinking, for work, about ways to forge alliances with social conservatives, especially Christians, who might, flowing from their faith, form a constituency in favor of racial justice on the right.

It is something of a truism that coded messages to opponents of racial equity are a key element of Republican electoral victories since Nixon. From Reagan’s speech in Philadelphia, MS to Ward Connerly’s strategically timed anti-affirmative action ballot measures to the attack ads against Harold Ford, tacit or explicit messages about race inform elections in ways that harm progressive causes, and thwart progress on racial justice.

Such pandering to whites disaffected by the civil rights gains of African-Americans has arguably damaged not only our national commitment to racial justice and equal rights, but our commitment to the common good, the commitment to universal access to excellent education, maintenance of infrastructure, and provision of the services and benefits of the ‘social safety net.’

This supposes that there remains a hard kernel of racists within the conservative movement. Taking that as granted, what if there were an equally ardent core of racial justice advocates, coming to that position on the basis of their own moral values and political beliefs? It would create a counterweight to such "dog whistle" racial codes*, such that a politician could only appeal to the one constituency by alienating the other. It might also create the balance necessary for policy discussions among Americans that take the need to address race-based inequity seriously, and act accordingly.

The rise of Barack Obama as a viable presidential candidate, after the Iowa caucuses, is a clear indication of changing times. But in a sense, the surge of Mike Huckabee gives me equal optimism, inasmuch as he represents the ways in which evolving political commitments among evangelicals do not necessarily hew to the modern-day conservative platform. There are indications that many evangelical activists are tiring of the exclusive focus on hot-button single issues like abortion and gay rights, and extending an interest to those who are disadvantaged and disenfranchised in our society. The New York Times quoted the influential conservative minister Bill Hybels on this phenomenon:

“we have just pounded the drum again and again that, for churches to reach their full redemptive potential, they have to do more than hold services – they have to try to transform their communities,” he said. “If there is racial injustice in your community, you have to speak to that. If there is educational injustice, you have to do something there. If the poor are being neglected by the government or being oppressed in some way, then you have to stand up for the poor.”

He brought up the Rev. Jim Wallis, the lonely voice of the tiny evangelical left. Wallis has long argued that secular progressives could make common cause with theologically conservative Christians. “What Jim has been talking about is coming to fruition,” Hybels said.

I've been paying increasing attention to the fissures within the evangelist movement in the past few months, and I think this could be the key factor in a substantial political realignment. To this end, I have suggested to the public policy organization I work with that we seek to disseminate our work to key figures on the right, probably sympathetic evangelical leaders.

Here’s what I have: empirical data on the persistence of structural inequities that disadvantage African Americans and others, and suggest the ways in which a more equitable society would benefit all Americans; a charismatic speaker who speaks compellingly on the topic, and a dozen or so others to draw on.

But while I am not hostile to religion, I’m a left-leaning atheist materialist who only went to church, as a child, when his grandparents came to town, and even then to the kinds of Catholic churches that attracted unionized Irish factory workers. I am, in short, in no real position to evaluate the feasibility or advisability of my own suggestion.

To those of you who are more closely acquainted with evangelism than I am, I pose these questions:

1. Am I right in seeing the potential for a shift here?

2. Are the potential gaps in the conclusions drawn by right and left from the same data dangerously great? That is, if we were wildly successful, would the resulting movement on the right be more dangerous than the status quo?

3. Is it unrealistic to think that conservative religious leaders, even sympathetic ones, might be willing to listen and be in dialogue with progressive racial justice/secular public policy folks?

4. If not, how would you go about reaching out to them?

Thanks! Here's to crazy ambitions, and a pivotal year in 2008.