BY OTHER MEANS, FOR OTHER ENDS?
BUSH’S RE-ELECTION REASSESSED

 
CHAPTER 2:

EVANGELIZING ELECTIONS:
BUSH’S POLITICS BY OTHER MEANS

A.     Imtiaz Hussain

Department of International Studies

Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City

Abstract:

     Two Bush transformations suggested a possible US political realignment underway: his 1986 born-again emergence accenting the unexpected role of religion in politics; and entering the White House in 2004 with more votes than any previous president after entering in 2000 without a popular mandate. His victory revitalized the evangelical segment of the electorate and elevated the pre-emptive foreign policy doctrine of hard-core neoconservatives. Interesting shifts like Catholics, Jews, Hispanics, and women turning towards the Republicans spell Democrat disarray in the immediate future, obscuring the importance of the youth preference for Democrats. Yet the over-riding shifts from bread-and-butter issues to values, domestic concerns to foreign policy engagements, Washington politics-as-usual to grassroots influences, and from viewing terrorism as an actual threat to a ballot-box red-herring seem set to alter the nature of US elections as we have known them to be.