I'm not sure that Sherrill is correct. I don't think gay marriage was enough to bring moderate Republicans into the fold, but it is their useful for stirring up the base.
I don't think that Iraq is so much a winning issue for the Republicans. After all, Karl Rove specializes in going after the opponents' strongest point. It may be strategically useful in using non-factual, emotional crap, like cut and run, because the Democrats don't know how to answer it. So Iraq can neutralize the Democrats' strength, but I don't think it can stir up the base. Central to what I was thinking about was that the winning issues seem to be emotional and unrelated to factual analysis. On Sat, Jun 24, 2006 at 04:17:00PM -0400, Doug Henwood wrote: > > > What sort of issues have political traction? Gay marriage. No facts > > required. My marriage is screwed up. Well, it is because a couple > > married in Mass. The right can get away with such crap because they > > are pretty unified and the media repeats much of what they say. > > Actually that seems not to be true. I had Hunter College poli sci > prof Ken Sherrill, my guru on gay politics, on my show the other > night - I won't get to post the show to my radio archive until > Monday, so there's no link yet. Sherrill said that the Reps have > turned to Iraq as their winning issue after failing with gay marriage > - it was not the reason for Bush's victory in 2004, and has even less > traction now. People care less & less. Gay people in Mass get > married, and the world hasn't come to an end; the movement to repeal > it seems to have died down. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
