Thanks for the mandate, anti-gay voters! Here's your social-security cuts!

[scottxyz]

Dear rural/exurban Christian conservative voters: Congratulations on your election victory. By going to the polls in unprecedented numbers Tuesday, you overwhelmed an enormous Democratic turnout and returned President Bush to office, along with a number of very conservative senators. Now Bush is preparing to repay your efforts by moving immediately on your highest priorities: a flat tax and privatizing Social Security.

Oh, wait. You didn't particularly hanker for those things, did you?

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-chait5nov05,1,2283812.column?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
(free registration required)

This article is similar to one of the best books/articles on politics published in many years, Thomas Frank's "What's the Matter with Kansas?" which gets to the heart of the Republican electoral strategy:

(1) Promise social change - fewer rights (or no "special" rights) for minorities.

(2) Deliver financial change - tax breaks and Social Security privatization profits for the wealthy.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=thomas+frank+kansas

Thomas Frank has a shorter article in today's NYT on this strategy:
'Why They Won'
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/05/opinion/05frank.html?ex=1257397200&en=60f120b9b79f92b8&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland

Frank's and Chait's articles get to the heart of the Republicans' brilliant solution to a crucial electoral problem: The Republicans are the party of the wealthy elite, but in order to win they need to get masses of non-wealthy non-elite people to vote for them.

How do the Republicans get around this problem? By appealing to anti-gay, anti-abortion types - but then delivering to wealthy types. Republicans campaign on "culture wars" - to distract from the "class war" they're actually waging.

This is a very effective tactic. Dukakis lost because of Willie Horton - and Kerry appears to have lost because of gay marriage (assuming he didn't lose because the voting machines were rigged, which cannot be disproven).