Was It Moral Issues?

So what everyone whats to know is: Why did the Republicans do so well?

I think in general the media, and the blogosphere in general, may have underestimated the role of moral issues in this election.

Most blogs I read are very libertarian or at least socially progressive on many moral issues. The media would also fall under this category as well. And since there were many other issues that, well lets be honest, are more fun to talk about, perhaps moral issues fell off of the radar screen of most people.

I tend to think that moral issues may have played a significant role in this election. In watching the coverage on CNN, Robert Novak in responding to comments from Paul Begala and Jim Carville, replyed that America is a 'very conservative' nation and that the Democrats are out of step with this mentality. The response from Begala and Carville was... nothing. They just sat there silently. Perhaps they were just bummed out, but they seemed to be very talkative 30 seconds before Novak made his comment so it certainly gives the impression that they had nothing to refute it.

Looking at the ballot initiatives across the various states the conservative position seemed to win in the vast majority of cases. I believe the bill to fund stem-cell research in California won but I can't think of any others.

As the numbers become clearer, it will be very interesting to see how the Catholic vote turned out. It of course has been traditionally Democratic but many people felt during the campaign that there was a good chance it would break Republican due to Democratic positions on many social and religious issues. The same goes for the Latino vote which of course is very Catholic and very conservative.

One other factor that may have come into play is the possibility that the next administration has the opportunity to appoint several judges to the Supreme Court. The Democrats raised this as a scare tactic (perhaps very legitimately from their viewpoint) but it seemed to be very low key from a Republican perspective. At least publicly. Did Republicans use this as a rallying cry to get out the vote. It'll be interesting to see.