"How New Wedge Issues Are Dividing the Right"

[Laelth]

4. I am particularly fond of this part.

I'm quoting it for the benefit of several of my "friends."

Playing to that base on social issues used to be compatible with winning elections. Indeed, divisive appeals on these issues helped mobilize the conservative base and affect electoral outcomes as recently as 2004, when gay marriage ballot initiatives were used to draw more evangelicals to the polls in swing states like Ohio. That game plan is no longer effective as Americans overall have embraced more progressive cultural values—a trend related to generational change and the fact that the nation's population has become better educated and more cosmopolitan in the past two decades.

-Laelth