McFreedom

Michele at a Small Victory has a longish morning after post that Instapundit briefly linked to. All of it's really worth reading, but I especially liked this bit in the middle:

I voted for George Bush.
I am not a redneck.
I do not spend my days watching cars race around a track, drinking cheap beer and slapping my woman on the ass.
I am not a bible thumper. In fact, I am an atheist.
I am not a homophobe.
I am educated beyond the fifth grade. In fact, I am college educated.
I am not stupid. Not by any stretch of facts.
I do not bomb abortion clinics.

You will not be thrown in jail for the sole reason of being a liberal.
Your child's public school will not suddenly turn into a center for Christian brainwashing.
Your favorite bookstore will not turn into puritan central.

This is not Nazi Germany in any way.
You will not be forced into concentration camps.
You will not be burned in human-sized ovens because of your religion.
We will not be forced to wear uniforms and march in line every day.
You will not live in fear.
If you think this is a country in which you have to live in fear, I have some friends in Iran who would like to have a little talk with you.

The Democrats are on a cusp, right now. If their conclusion is that they just lost because 51% of America thinks that God Hates Fags, they're going to get an even smaller part of the vote. Performing a similar analysis of the exit poll numbers as we did below, we find that only half of Bush voters favor "no recognition" for same-sex couples. If the Democrats had been able to attract the 6.3 million people who voted for Bush and support gay marriage (to say nothing of the 20 million pro-civil union Bush voters), this would've been a very different election.

A number of other factors belie the "Only Bumpkins Vote For Bush" theory some Democrats are spinning. Depending which contradictory poll you believe, either the Republicans won amongst college grads, or at best it was split 49/49. Only 14% of Bush's voters considered his most important quality to be his "Religious Faith" - 55% of them said it was because he was a "Strong Leader" or because of his "Clear Stand on Issues." There are a large number of Americans who aren't evangelical Christians, support gay marriages or unions (46% of Bush's voters), think abortion should be legal (35% of Bush's voters), and yet voted for Bush anyway. If the official Democrat response to these voters is "well, you're stupid," then they're going to do nothing to win us over.

The big news for the Democrats of 2008 is that there is a big block of swing voters that swung against you this year. Don't focus on the 50% of Bush voters that oppose gay marriage - I agree you don't want them. But pay attention to us, the college-educated, pro-choice, pro-civil-union (or better), non-evangelical Christian middle. There are at least 15 million of us (who vote) and perhaps as many as 25 million. We decided this election. If you want us to vote your way, you're going to have to come up with something more compelling than "fuck middle America." I got news for you - we're middle America, and we just fucked you. You need a new sign if you want us back next time.