I’d quibble with ’04, when I think being scared of Islamic terrorism was still enough of a thing to drive a lot of W’s support. But I guess the big play they made on gay marriage indicates that terrorism had lost a lot of its power as an issue

Republicans clearly didn't think so. They loaded up key swing states with anti-gay marriage initiatives.

Right wing propaganda wouldn't have rated if the economy was doing poorly, as we saw in 2008 when a guy named Barack Hussein Obama overcame centuries of racism and decades of negatively towards his middle name to win.