Another reader (who is remaining nameless, only because it's 11:41pm and I forgot to ask his permission) doesn’t blame the “whole defeat” on gay marriage, but notes:

that homophobia was used as a tactic in this election to a degree we have never seen in our lifetime. Karl Rove, remember, said three years ago that, after the 2000 election, there was no middle in American politics. He noted that there were about 4 million evangelical Christians who did not vote in 2000, and determined that those four million could make the difference for Bush.

Abortion not being what it was as an issue on the political landscape, and stem cell research involving too much science for most people’s taste, Rove decided that gay marriage would be used as the bait to lure those people (a) into registering and (b) into voting. The constitutional amendment in Congress was only one part of that strategy. Similar (and worse) constitutional amendments on the ballots in key states (e.g. Ohio, Michigan) were placed there specifically to assure a higher turnout than would otherwise be expected from those “missing evangelicals.”

The strategy worked. First, Bush’s margin of victory in the popular vote was 3.5 million. Can’t say how many of those were from the missing 4 million from 2000, but the numbers are close enough for government work. Second, Bush’s victory margin in Ohio specifically tracks the difference between (a) the additional numbers of voters Democrats brought to the polls and (b) the additional number of voters Republicans brought to the polls. Among Ohio’s voters, 22 percent said that “moral values” were the most important issue for them. Not Iraq. Not terrorism. Not the economy (which, by the way, sucked in Ohio). “Moral values.” Read “gay marriage.” This 22 percent was a plurality among ALL issues that voters in Ohio said were most important to them. And of those, 85 percent voted for Bush.

Certainly, this election was about other things. But it sickens me, as a gay man, that the existing prejudice against us was used – that WE were used – as a tool of political strategy. Not since Nixon’s Southern Strategy has a political party (interestingly, the same political party) so nakedly used a minority against the other party.

Of course I regret that this tactic worked. But of course it worked. Karl Rove is apolitical and amoral, and he has an appallingly astute sense of the mechanics of ugliness, the machine of our dark souls. There were plenty of other gay issues that could have been talked about – and which a majority of Americans now agree on. A federal law protecting gays against workplace discrimination has over 54 percent support among all Americans. Even civil unions now enjoy broad enough support that George W. said he would not oppose them. But on marriage – and only on marriage – is there still majority support across the board against us. The President (and, to be honest the press) did not focus on any of those more acceptable areas. The focus was relentlessly, obsessively, on the single gay issue that a majority of Americans oppose.

I give political strategy an awful lot of leeway. I am, if anything, a political realist. But the use of gay marriage in this election is beyond the pale, is appalling beyond any measure. And I am confident that this victory will embolden the religious right in ways we can’t yet anticipate.