Wedge Issues

Some analysis on NPR this morning boiled down the election to moral wedge issues:

1. Gay marriage
2. Abortion

The heavily motivated and organized christian right won the election for Bush. Chalk one up for Karl Rove. In many ways Bush is his "discovery", i.e. creation; he set his site on him in the 1990s as fitting the bill for the white house. According to exit polling data, although with some flaws, "morals" were a supriringly high priority for voters.

It is amazing that wedge issues can be such an overwhelming force. I suppose one cannot expect much more from human nature. People are simple; they have a couple of core beliefs; when those beliefs are met/reinforced other issues in a platform become accepted in a series of rationalization dominos. Karl Rove certainly understood this aspect of human nature.

"So what if Iraq has been fucked up. My man W is a God-ferring Christian. He fights for the unborn and is against those heathenous rump rangers!"

What is glossed over: forget the fact that the really important issues (to W as a person; and to his croney supporters) are business regulatory ones (ranging from environmental, entitlement, taxation and others). These issues directly affect them. We know Republicans frequently go from government ("service", what a joke) to the private sector and Democrats go from government to different public service. Does anyone really believe that abortion means anything to W personally? school prayer? stem-cell research? Does anyone think that W will feel racism directed towards him? Or care whether some spotted owl gets killed off somewhere in Oregon? Or if Joe-loser who turns a wrench loses his job? But you better believe that an estate tax, income tax, capital gains tax, oil drilling regulation, campaign finance reform sure as hell personally affects him.

The problem with campaigns are the fact that slogans, not evaluation of deeds or of conflicts of interest/personal gain, rule the day. But then that is human nature. The former is easy and the latter is difficult.

Egan