Among those who voted on Social Security, Gore won by 18 points. It must be said, however, that Bush's campaign was much more daring and principled than those of the congressional Republicans. They ran on incumbency and pork rather than tax cuts, Social Security reform, and school choice. Having won Congress in 1994 by nationalizing the elections, they have kept it since by fudging national issues and tending to local concerns. Tip O'Neill is back.
Republican congressmen are, for the most part, neither fools nor knaves.
They are politicians who recognize that they do not have the political strength to enact a substantial conservative agenda. And it does not look likely that they will have it any time soon. When the electorate is divided into voting blocs, the majority bloc favors the Republicans. Protestants, who were 54 percent of the electorate, gave 56 percent of their votes to Bush. The 74 percent of the electorate who came from nonunion households gave 52 percent of their votes to Bush.