Bush didn’t win reelection in 2004 on the basis of his having done very much for the country, on the popularity of the Iraq war (it was already a clusterfuck, and fairly unpopular), or even lingering 9/11 fear. His administration was already plagued by scandal.
Mostly, the conservative base was galvanized against the recent turning tide of gay rights, including the legalization of sodomy–which is to say, gay sex, which is to say, being gay–in all 50 states by the Supreme Court, and the legalization of gay marriage in Massachusetts. The GOP put gay marriage on the ballot in multiple states, which got many right-leaning voters who were otherwise not inspired by the Bush administration to come vote, which helped get him reelected. (In combination with outright lying, and so on.)
Bush is remembered for being vocally tolerant, in a kind of Christian sense, of differences. And while it’s true that I’d rather hear George W. Bush’s folksy tolerance than whatever’s coming out of the current president’s mouth, you’ve got to remember this:
That was the genius of compassionate conservatism as party strategy: a small helping of moderate rhetoric at the top never prevented the hardest-right elements in Bush’s party from getting their way on social issues, even as the gentler tone helped woo a broader base of support for the president.
If you think the timing of Trump’s proposed transgender ban–that is, his administration wants to erase transgenderism from the US entirely, to say nothing of your ungendered friends over here–is a coincidence and not a calculated effort to gin up conservative votes in the weeks before they are likely to lose the House and several governorships–
I mean, if you don’t think that, I want to give you the benefit of the doubt–maybe you were too young to notice that this kind of thing works?
Please vote.