Farmers and old people are pandered to by both parties. Remember, it is the Republican in this race that ran against farm subsidies, while the Democrat whole-heartedly supported them. Remember, too, that support for replacing Social Security with privately-owned retirement accounts is solely a Republican idea. Democrats answer to future deficits in the Social Security program is "tax the rich". That seems to be their answer to a lot of problems. I hope they have read up on their parables involving golden geese.

There is some truth to the old Republican saw that the Republican Party is a coalition of ideologies, while the Democratic Party is a coalition of interest groups. It just so happens that a particularly stupid and nasty ideology that most Republicans don't really like has been in the ascendancy since Bush brought it in by stealth. Hopefully, that will change.