Coyne is a bit off.
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True, it found the largest single block of voters identified "moral values" as the "most important election issue" -- a much cited factoid -- and that 80% of these respondents voted for Bush. But that hardly makes this election a triumph of theocracy. In the first place, "largest single block" turns out to mean 22%, meaning 78% of voters -- including two-thirds of Bush voters -- named some other issue. Second, the pollsters only managed to elevated "moral values" to number one by dividing up the other issues into subcategories. Thus "Iraq" and "Terrorism" are treated as separate issues, though grouped together as, say, "national security" they would have claimed the top spot, with 34% of the total. Likewise "taxes" and "economy" were named by a combined 25% of voters. Had "moral values" been split into "abortion" and "gay marriage," the spin would have been rather different.
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1) Iraq and Terrorism ARE separate issues. Iraq has nothing to do with national security, other than how what we're doing there is increasing anti-American hatred.
There were indeed a lot of Bush voters motivated by terrorphobia and a belief that Bush would be a more competent war leader than Kerry, which is a sad indictment of much of the voting public.
2) Again, taxes and the economy are separate (if related) issues. When I think "economy" I think jobs, the stock market, layoffs, unemployment, etc., not 1040 forms. They're not unrelated, but they are distinct.
3) I'm not suggesting that EVERYBODY who voted for Bush was a raving bible-thumper, not by a long shot.
But what state was the turning point? Ohio. What drew a hell of a lot of religious folk to the polls, helping to counter the major turnout in Ohio's cities? Ohio's anti-gay-marriage proposition. If that's the two-minute drill that won the game, to use your analogy that popped up while I was posting, fine -- but this was a close game until that finish, not some 49-3 blowout where the Democrats are bitching about how the last touchdown scored. In a state that lived up to its billing as being crucial to this election, they made a significant difference.
And regardless of how pivotal a role the religious right truly played, they _are_ lining up to take credit and demand action. We may not feel it quite as much up here, but there are going to be a whooooooole lot of Roy Moore and Santorum sound-alikes making life very uncomfortable in a lot of places, particularly if the Constitution Restoration Act goes through this time. With the newly revised Senate, I wouldn't bet against it, and that scares the shit out of me.