The Shipler Report November 13, 2012 The most significant lesson of the election may be one that has gone practically unnoticed: Conservatives have failed to radicalize the American electorate, even after years of well-organized, heavily-financed efforts. Most voters have not been pushed to the extremes, not by Fox-News and Rush-Limbaugh propaganda, not by thinly encrypted appeals to racial bigotry, not by evangelical preachers threatening the wrath of God for abortion and same-sex marriage. Fire and brimstone ain't what they used to be. As the pundit class has observed, Republicans have been left behind by the demographic shift. But that's not the whole story. The group identities that have always described the landscape of American politics run deeper than skin color or national and religious heritage. Groups have real political interests and resilient attitudes, not easily manipulated in an open society where multiple voices can be heard. So the rising American groups -- Latinos, Asians, African-Americans, less religious whites -- have proved resistant to the rightwing argument. They have not been swept into the back eddies of radicalism. They are afflicted by less moral certainty than the hard right would wish -- less distaste for government, less intolerance on social issues, a wider embrace of diversity in politics and culture. Witness the views on gay marriage evolving at warp speed. Conservatives don't quite see what has happened, judging by their early analyses and proposed solutions. Their Long Campaign (my term), which transcends the specific campaigns for specific candidates, is simply not