Conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer
takes issue with the view that moral values in general, and gay
marriage in particular, played a major role in Bush's re-election
-- the conventional wisdom now being peddled by Karl Rove and the
religious right on one hand, and liberal Democrats on the other.
Krauthammer focuses on liberals, characterizing their response to
Bush's victory as follows: "You never lose because your ideas are
sclerotic or your positions retrograde, but because your opponent
appealed to the baser instincts of mankind." And he observes of the
celebrated exit poll query:
The way the question was set up, moral values was sure to be ranked disproportionately high. Why? Because it was a multiple-choice question and moral values cover a group of issues, while all the other choices were individual issues.... "Moral values" encompasses abortion, gay marriage, Hollywood's influence, the general coarsening of the culture, and, for some, the morality of pre-emptive war.
The fallback is then to attribute Bush's victory to the gay marriage referendums that pushed Bush over the top, particularly in Ohio. This is more nonsense. George Bush increased his vote in 2004 over 2000 by an average of 3.1 percent nationwide. In Ohio the increase was 1 percent -- less than a third of the national average. In the 11 states in which the gay marriage referendums were held, Bush increased his vote by less than he did in the 39 states that did not have the referendum. The great anti-gay surge was pure fiction.
While Krauthammer's target is the liberal media trying to paint
Bush voters as homophobes, his critique also works as a convincing
rebuttal to Karl Rove's contention that the GOP owes
anti-gay-marriage evangelicals mightily for Bush's
victory.
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