"moral values"

The religious right did turn out and it was, of course, solidly Republican.  This has been the case ever since Reagan, though perhaps some people are just now noticing.  While conservative evangelical voting patterns weren't any different than in the past, their level of activity probably went up a notch or two, though several other slices of the electorate did so as well--young people, for example, who turned out well, despite initial reports, yet whose over-all share of the vote was only slightly higher than in 2000.  (They went strong for Kerry, 55-45.)

There was a bit of a new wrinkle, one that was less noticed, but one that nonetheless proved to be very important.  Conservative evangelical churches were very effective locally-based organizing centers, rather like union halls have been for us.    

Most of the election maps are deceiving.  People look at all that red, and conservatives, as they are wont to do, see themselves as that great wave which is washing over the nation, while liberals, as they are wont to do, see the barbarians storming the city gates.  Look at a map that weights for population, however, and you see how close the election really was.  (Note to pundits:  Acreage doesn't vote.  People do.)

Silver lining department:  Everybody is saying that the religious right and "moral values" won the election for Bush and now he owes them all his Supreme Court appointments, and a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage to boot.  Good.  Let them think that.  

If he does it, and Roe v. Wade is overturned, that could well work to our electoral advantage.  We Democrats have paid a huge price for Roe.  It peeled off 4-5% of the vote from one of our strongest constituencies--Catholics--and allowed the conservatives to claim the moral high ground.  (They can wax eloquent about the "unborn," but don't seem to care much for the "born.")  If he doesn't do it, even after controlling Congress and packing the Court, the religious right can't help but be somewhat de-energized and deflated.

Besides, conservatives actually have a point.  Abortion should have been argued and debated publicly, and, at some point, people who had actually been elected to office should have voted on it.  If Roe is overturned, we will have that public discussion in the state legislatures, and conservatives will discover that most people want abortion to be, as Bill Clinton put it, "safe, legal, and rare."  (The number of abortions declined every year of Clinton's presidency, and has risen every year in Bush's.)

On the principle of "if you could pick your enemies," we could hardly do better than to have the religious right as our opponents.  Sure, they're a big voting block--about a third--but the other two-thirds can't stand them.  They were strong enough to get Clinton impeached, but not strong enough to remove him from office.  (A good portion of Clinton's high level of public support was reaction against his opponents.  They didn't like him particularly, but they thought his opponents were nuts.)  

This is why the Bush campaign kept conservative evangelical efforts somewhat out of sight.  Most of the religious right organizing was done "under the radar" through mailings, the internet, and person-to-person contact.  Five days before the election, for example, I received a CD from some outfit in Colorado Springs titled:  "Faith in the White House."  If I got one, they must have been sending them out to everybody.