Not that anyone cares at this point in the thread, but it's clear that there
were 5 main groups voting strongly for Bush. People who earn more than
$200,000, people who believe that the only real business of government is
defense/(offence), people who think that sticking to one point of view (no
matter how discredited) is more indicative of leadership than flexibility
is, people who live in small towns with perhaps less access to a variety of
news sources, and people who are religious conservatives. There are some
overlaps between these groups, notably the religious conservatives and small
town groups.
What can be said unequivocably is that Bush could not have won this election
without the religious conservative vote. Just subtract their numbers
(20,000,000 or so) and you get a Kerry over Bush victory 56,000,000 to
39,000,000. So on issues which could be argued on a rational basis, you have
a significant, but smaller group of Republicans. Even though I disagree with
those voters, at least we could argue political philosophy, numbers,
motives, cost/benefit, etc. Once you get into the realm of which candidate
truly believes "Jesus Christ is my personal Savior", and how you would prove
that, you've lost the ability to have a rational political discussion.
But as I wrote to my Republican brother recently, the Democrats faced
internal disunity for over 100 years between the northern Democrats and the
southern Democrats. The northerns were anti-slavery, the southerns pro, the
northerns willing to assist the implementation of Amendments XIII and XIV,
the southerns to obstruct them, the northerns to pass civil rights
legislation in the 50's and 60's, the southerns to obstruct them, the
northerns to encourage scientific knowledge and debate, the southerns to
vote on public officials depending on their stand on evolution.
Now the Republicans have "inherited" the south, and with that
inheritance come a lot of problematical issues and potential divisions down
the road. Barry Goldwater spent the last years of his life warning his
fellow Republicans that there would be tremendous trouble in store for them
if they allowed the Christian right to become dominant in their party, and I
would say that we've arrived at that point.