Though I would bet that activists representing these two groups would be loathed to say it, there are actually some quite deep areas of philosophical agreement between true blue liberals and evangelical Christians. In both cases, there is a deep sense of morality in their contemplation of how government should take part in society. Also, liberals--particularly environmentally inclined liberals--and evangelicals both tend to have deep skepticism of our consumption oriented culture, each tending to long for deeper more meaningful avenues toward self-realization. Finally, they both believe that we all have a profound responibility to our fellow man and to environment.

These are profound areas of agree and they hold extraordinary potential. If our society were ever faced with salient problems that related to these issues or if we were ever as a society to become disillusioned with materialistic approaches to self-realization, I think we could very possibly see just such a realignment as this.

I could be wrong about this--or simply seeing things long before they are likely to ripen--but I get the sense that, at least for the members of my generation, there is a growing suspicion that there is more to life than the stable middle class life our parents obsessively pursued. Every now and then, I hear news reports of people my age who are electing to work few hours to spend more time with their family--even if it potentially hurts their career. Others are seeking more flexible jobs to pursue their career goals. To me, I think there is just starting to appear on the horizon the next societal step. I find the current consumption oriented American existence unsustainable both spiritually and, more obviously, economically.

Indeed, the economic aspect of American consumerism is much more likely to be the eventual force that knocks us out of our materialist stupor. And it is likely to happen, I think, much more quickly than we think. The incredible economic expansion of the past 200 years has had one single requirement and that is cheap oil. Most experts believe that the era of cheap oil is very rapidly coming to an end. The most optimistic estimates believe that oil production will peak in the next thirty years. The most pessimistic estimates think it will be next year. Probably a reasonable prediction would be some time in the next decade. After that happens, we may be able to use natural gas as a more expensive transition fuel, but regardless, we can expect that it will become harder and harder to maintain our expected levels economic growth. And all of this doesn't even begin to take into account the the emergency that global warming is becoming. If we don't half our global carbon emission in the next 50 - 70 years, we may reach the point of environmental no return.

The point of all this is that both on a spiritual level and on an economic level, the two sections of the American electorate most likely to be willing to lead the way in making the hard choices that will need to made in the next few years will in all likelihood be Christians and Liberals. This is a significant possibility for realignment in the works, and one that I think we absolutely must be will to participate. What's required is a governing majority that is environmentally oriented. The next century will hold incredible challenges for the world, and the world can't afford for America to continue to be bogged down in partisanship.