Michael Lind on Republican ascendency

Michael Lind has a perceptive postmortem on the 2004 elections:

"The American right has managed to unite the centre with the right in a majority coalition. But it has not converted the centre to the right. Indeed, in this election, as in 2000, Bush downplayed his hardline conservatism and campaigned on the basis of widely shared American values. The Republicans have successfully reached out to red-state America - while the Democrats have turned their backs on it."

It's worth a read.

Hat tip to Real Clear Politics