This is precisely why politics in America is so superficial these days. For a week, the pundits have been obsessed with Barack Obama’s “bitter” quote, as the candidates toss personal barbs back and forth. But what Obama was talking about is the tendency of politicians to pander to social and religious issues to deflect attention from more pressing economic and international relations problems. To make matters worse, we’ve got political statisticians like Larry Bartels writing now that “[s]mall-town people of modest means and limited education are not fixated on cultural issues…. In contemporary American politics, social issues are the opiate of the elites.”
Well, hello Mr. Bartels and where have you been for the last eight years? That is precisely how Bush won Ohio in 2004 and South Carolina in 2000. “Opiate” may be a strong word, but it is the social issue elixir that conservatives keep dishing out and working class, small-town voters keep lapping up. From Willie Horton to Swift Boats, that’s what American politics is all about — and why it truly sucks.