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11.08.04 Still Scratching My Head

I'm still having a hard time shoveling through all the rhetoric analyzing the election results. On the one hand I see the Red States vs. the Blue States, the states that might as well secede to Canada vs. Jesusland. The new Civil War.

Is the future really going to be a war of so-called values? If so, then I'm with Atrios:

If "values" are the new battleground... then I say bring it on, Larry Flynt-style. Let the scarlet A's be handed out, the closet doors swung open, and weekly church attendance records of members of congress and the administration be compiled. If sinning godless heathens are the problem, then let's be clear about who the sinning godless heathens are.

But I spent some time studying the statistics in the Sunday papers. The New York Times published a massive demographic analysis based on exit polling of 13,600 voters. To me it looked like a sea of 40-something percents vs. 50-something percents -- waves of small differences.

It is true that people "who attend church at least once a week" (41% of the electorate) voted for Bush by 61%. But these can't all be ignorant Bible-thumpers, since well-heeled, colleged educated people also voted Republican.

I looked at the map of our own county. I live in New York -- true blue. My county came out narrowly for Kerry. But when I look at the map of how each precinct voted, it presents a pretty traditional picture. The City of Rochester and the traditionally Jewish suburb voted for Kerry. The rest of the suburbs, both middle class and wealthy voted for Bush.

Add me to the ranks of hare-brained opinionaters, but I'm beginning to think the whole "culture war" is a red herring. The power Republicans are guys who largely care about nothing but their own wealth. The corporate class sees no use for government except to channel money to them and bail them out then they are in trouble. Tax cut, tax cut, tax cut.

These are the people who read Ayn Rand in college and see the world only in economic terms. They are afraid of nothing but losing power and privilege.

People who go to church every week are those looking for structure, meaning, community, and strong leadership. They also find comfort in being with "their own" in a world where schools and workplaces have been so aggressively "diversified." They have busy lives. They don't have time for policy analysis. They are always afraid for their livelihoods, but is there anything about church-oriented life that makes people more afraid of the Other? Allows them to be easily manipulated by the powerful fat cats? Beware of gays and terrorists and anyone who dresses funny and speaks a foreign language, who might disrupt your personal world order?

Oh, I still don't get it.

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