The South Carolina Democratic Party may be on life support for now. But don’t despair.

As vice presidential nominee John Edwards was fond of saying during the campaign, “Hope is on the way.”

It just may take the rest of the decade to get the party’s house in order.

Democrats were crushed in the Nov. 2 election. They again lost the white vote and failed to run as strong in the African-American community as they had hoped.

The results left the Democrats perplexed and scratching their heads.

What now?

The Democrats may find the answer to their predicament in the next generation of voters, suggests College of Charleston political scientist Bill Moore.

The fast-growing Hispanic community in the state presents the party with a golden opportunity, he says.

Sign them up. Enlist their services now, he says.

Hispanics tend to identify with the Democratic Party. But more than 40 percent voted Republican for President Bush on Nov. 2.

Then, there is the next generation of college graduates.

“Students today are not as conservative on social issues as their parents,” Moore said, suggesting that is another trend that should benefit the Democratic Party.

“Over the next decade, we are going to see changes in the South as a new generation comes along and replaces the old one, thus making the South a lot different region than it is today,” says Moore.

For now, Republicans own the issues of faith and moral values that matter most to Southerners.

Exit polls in this year’s general election showed that white South Carolinians who identified themselves as evangelicals or born-again Christians overwhelmingly favored GOP candidates.

Asked what one issue mattered most in deciding how to vote for president, they said moral values. And when asked which quality mattered most in picking a president, an overwhelming number said a strong religious faith.

If S.C. Democrats hope to be successful in statewide races in the future, they must figure out a way to get back the white voters that abandoned them for the Republicans.

What’s the key?

Moral values, stupid.

But Republicans not only own the values debate, they have defined it. They are against gay marriages and oppose abortion. Their opposition to both is widely known across Dixie. It has been carved into the GOP platform.

The best the Democrats can do is talk about “feeding the poor and clothing the naked.” But that doesn’t excite the electorate.

“We cannot concede the issue of faith and values in the South,” says state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter of Orangeburg, a member of the Democratic National Committee. “If we do, we lose.”

Any change won’t come easily. Nor will it happen overnight.

Just saying “all we have to do is turn out our base” won’t cut it anymore, says S.C. Democratic chairman Joe Erwin.

The party has to find a way to regain the upperhand on the faith and values issue, he said.

S.C. Democrats have pushed faith and values issues at the national party’s level, but “it has fallen on deaf ears,” Cobb-Hunter says.

So, without any direction or encouragement from the national party, how do Southern Democrats map a course to win back white voters?

Right now, Democrats don’t have the foggiest idea.