You know, I’m not as dismissive of the “moral values” demographic as I useta. Like you said, gay marriage, abortion, hostility to committed Christianity. These are not ridiculous, unreal concerns. They have real substance, and I am not reflexively opposed to them anymore. In fact, I am very glad that they mean something to a significant portion of the populace.
On Nov 2, 2004, at 11:54 PM, Seward, Jeff wrote:
I read it. I like the one about the virtual reality folks vs. the earthy reality folks. Actually, I don’t think either group is very well connected to “real” reality. The virtual reality folks think Michael Moore is an insightful, reasonable guy; the earthy reality types think Jerry Falwell should be taken seriously. MSNBC just showed results of an exit poll that said the top three issues, according to the voters, were “moral values” (21 percent), “the economy” (20 percent), and “terrorism” (18 percent). Of the “moral values” crowd, 77 percent went for Bush, and the moral values they were concerned about were gay marriage and abortion and the sense that the broader culture is hostile to fundamentalist Christians (which it is). Kerry lost 75 percent of white evangelical Protestants. Their turnout offset the big Democratic turnout of minority and youth voters. The Democrats lost every Southern state and every border state. Why? Basically race and the Bible, these days mostly the Bible. And also the sense that Democrats are largely urbanites and have no understanding of what is important to the way of life of small town and rural Americans. Republicans have many issues with which they can appeal to urban and suburban voters–mostly anti-tax, pro-business economic issues. The Democrats at this point have no issues at all with which they can appeal to small town and rural voters, especially if they are religious. The Democrats have lost all interest in figuring out a way to make white evangelical Christians the sense that they respect their religious views or the lives they lead in small towns and rural areas. This is mainly because the overwhelming majority of Democrats (except for some Black evangelicals) don’t respect their religious views or their way of life. But Bush is winning this election because of this rock solid part of the Republican base.