Reaping the Whirlwind

Over at TNR, Noam Scheiber comments on the suggestion that there could be another GOP defection from the privatization plan-- the fundamentalist right. And it makes perfect sense. He courted them on values, and now his mercenaries expect payment:

"The Times has an interesting piece today about how leading conservative evangelicals (all the usual suspects, like James Dobson and Tony Perkins) have advised the administration not to count on their support for Social Security privatization unless it gets religion, so to speak, on gay marriage. The most fascinating graf of the piece:

Several members of the group said that not long ago, many of their supporters were working or middle class, members of families that felt more allegiance to the Democratic Party because of programs like Social Security before gravitating to the Republican Party as it took up more cultural conservative issues over the last 20 years.

I actually think this is one of the sleeper political considerations surrounding Social Security. Republicans have beening winning over Reagan Democrat-types for the last two decades because, for these people, moral values increasingly trump economic concerns when it comes time to vote. But when it comes to Social Security, the issue is pretty much entirely about economics--there aren't any offsetting moral-value considerataions to speak of (though the White House is trying to suggest there are)."

PS- Note on the title of this post: "Well-read Humbert!"