Reply #5: Yes, just finished reading it.

[mariema]

It is well written and I thought his unique perspective, coming from an upper middle class suburb in Kansas, made it even more compelling. He used humor and that insight to explain his central premise: that the “great (conservative) backlash” has made it near impossible for working and lower middle class conservatives to make the choice between their “moral” imperatives and their own financial interests in the voting booth.

It made me aware of a couple things that I had not thought through before. First, that almost all of the cultural “wedge” issues; abortion, stem cell research, prayer in school, etc., are not issues that are ever going to be resolved completely, thus we will always have them with us in one way or another. And, second, that all the conservatives have to do is keep their base focused on those issues, pay some lip service to those issues, make speeches and propose legislation that will never come to pass, and the “red states” will remain red no matter what.