Ever since President Bush’s remarks about the FMA a few weeks ago, I’ve been hearing the social Right complain that Bush is willing to fight for Social Security reform but not against same-sex marriage, even though there is more public opposition to same-sex marriage than there is support for Social Security reform. Social conservatives have a legitimate complaint with Bush, who does appear to have used them (not to mention gays) for electoral purposes on the marriage question. But I don’t see the force of this parallel to Social Security at all. First of all, the social conservatives are not making an apples-to-apples comparison of public opinion. Average out the polls, and support for the FMA lags behind opposition to same-sex marriage. Second, the climb on the FMA is a lot steeper. You don’t need 67 senators and 290 House members to pass Social Security reform. Anyway, beating up on Social Security reform doesn’t strike me as smart coalition politics.