The first time I ever heard the term was years ago, and it applied to partial-birth abortion. The issue was used to divide the Left on the larger issue of abortion itself. The reasoning was that if you could appall people enough at PBA, they would sense, if only dimly, that all abortion was slaughter.
Gay marriage could possibly be used to divide the straight middle who do not care that much about gay marriage from the militant gays and their supporters, who do want it. A smaller issue used to divide a larger one, the larger one being support for the gay agenda in general.
It’s a sharp issue that separates the thinkers from the straitjacketed lefties.
Your last paragraph makes no sense at all. How could something like partial-birth abortion be used to divide pro-lifers? It’s the part of the issue they would be most vehement about supporting! Wedges are only sharp at one end.
I see the language getting dumbed down all the time. Back in the sixties, Bill Kunstler exhorted his followers, “Right on!” Meaning they should continue the fight right onward without stopping. Now it is used to mean the equivalent of the British “spot on”: “you are exactly right!”
Let’s remember what a wedge issue actually is. Then maybe we have a chance of using it effectively.
What's a wedge issue for one side isn't for the other.
To dream up an example here, you'd need to think of a wedge for pro-lifers to support abortion, for some it might "in the case of rape or incest" since for some that sounds reasonable usage. I think what was used in the early abortion battle of Roe v. Wade was the red herring of back alley, clothes hanger abortions - even today the left says "making abortion rare and SAFE".
So wedges are somewhat of an art form. You have to also be careful about what's called cross-pressure. For example if you talk about limits on abortion, like rape and incest, as a wedge against pro-lifers, you risk sounding wrong on the issue to pro-aborts. Ideally you control who gets what message - that's why direct mail and good lists are so valuable. But in today's media, it's hard to maintain message control, what is communicated to one target audience can get picked up and broadcast to everyone, and backfire on you.
Let’s remember what a wedge issue actually is. Then maybe we have a chance of using it effectively.
And avoid its use against us - which is the subject of this thread.