Very interesting article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday about "The New Evangelicals."  The author discusses the mass advent of what she calls "ethnic evangelicals" and has a few words about their politics.  She says: "Ethnic evangelicals and their offspring are more urban than suburban; they vote Democrat as well as Republican. New arrivals are as likely to care about immigration, human rights, poverty and religious freedom abroad as about same-sex marriage or Israel...."

So apparently the same old Republicanism will not turn these people into values voters.  If we want them to vote with us, here are some suggestions:

1. Develop a rational and compassionate immigration policy.  Mr. Bush's current guest-worker proposal is a good first step, but it doesn't go far enough to ensure justice for all immigrants.

2. The GOP is already the party of national defense; let's make it the party of national conscience.  Personalize the neoconservative ideal.  Again, Mr. Bush has gone a long way towards this, but we must make it clear that we will oppose tyranny anywhere, anytime, in a manner of our choosing.  Cuban immigrants are drawn to the party out of anti-Castro sentiment.  Couldn't this work on a broader scale?

3. Get the Republican rank-and-file to start thinking of themselves as "compassionate conservatives" (I love that phrase).  If people's hearts are changed, maybe we can have real, effective poverty relief -- the public and private sectors working together.