The Cavalry From Calvary
I'm going to sneak a politics post in on a Saturday when nobody reads this because you're all out having lives and whatnot.

Over at liberal news-catcher Demagogue, which I frequent, there is serious discussion going on (still) about the exit polls from Nov. 2 and what they really say. This is standard operating procedure for intellectually curious people who are more interested in reaching correct conclusions than contorting shifting facts to fit their predetermined value-sets. We're kind of charmingly quaint that way.

What is being openly questioned is the extent to which "moral values" drove the electorate to the polls in such large numbers as opposed to the whole raft of other issues. Almost two weeks on now, we're all un-slinging our noose-ended ropes from the rafters, putting our kick-away step stools back in the closet and trying to figure out what is really going on here.

The problem is with the questions asked and how they were framed when the exit polls were being taken. It is still clear that "moral values" was the answer most often given, but it was in a slate of multiple-choices and gave no further refinement to what "moral values" actually means.

Of course I think the argument can still be made that the prominence of the gay marriage issue, brought up by some pioneering attempts in Massachusetts and in the Bay Area of California, was further exploited by the Bush campaign to scare people into a very odd revolt--it was a rising of people... who already control everything. Republican House, Senate, Presidency, Supreme Court, but still the tactic was effective to get what might have been a complacent electorate out in numbers to defend against rampant homo-ism. The Comfortably Enfranchised rising up, as it were.

But the same edge of despairing hysteria among Dems, in the cold light of day, doesn't hold up quite as much. Kerry gave it his best shot and people simply didn't buy it in quite enough numbers on the whole range of issues.

No such re-examination, however, is going on amongst the far right fringes of the GOP.

Everyone's favorite cuddly racist homophobe Bob Jones of Bob Jones University, Bob Jones Academy, Bob Jones Middle School and Bob Jones Elementary School fame--that paragon of Christian modesty--says the election was God's way of saying Bush should stick it to us "pagans", the liberals who "despise Christ". No details of his legislative plans were given, but one assumes they would include public branding and stoning of Mormons and Catholics, severed hands as punishment for race-traitors and immediate execution for anyone who knows how to exfoliate.

I readily admit that Bob Jones is on the extreme of the extreme.

Slightly more mainstream, Jerry Falwell is back in the gay-baiting fundraising game with some force, energized by the Republican steamroller that was Bush's massive 3% national mandate margin, convinced that the election is the sign of a new rebirth of America into a godly era where abortion is illegal, homosexuality is a treatable condition and the law will look the other way if he decides Larry Flynt "has to go".

The point I'm getting at is that this has been a really good couple of days. Less than two weeks after this election and a putsch is in progress within the Republican Party. They banded together to save the world from the godless articulate competence of a John F. Kerry. Now they can focus on the real enemy: moderate Republicans.

Yes, this is excellent news for Democrats everywhere. Our dark hours have come and gone. We need only wait while the Christian Right nut-cases drive the moderates out and into our waiting, comforting arms.

Don't believe me? The purges have already begun.

Moderates like Pennsylvania Republican senator Arlen Specter are meant to get the message that the religious right arm of the new Republican party will brook no dissent. Seniority and precedent be damned, he will not get to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee if they can help it all because he voiced the obstinately obvious, calmly rational opinion that he didn't think Roe v. Wade would be summarily reversed in the immediate future.

That's the beauty of the two-party system: there are only two options, D or R. If moderates are dissatisfied/uninvited to Jesus' Pre-Rapture Blow-Out Event, where could they possibly end up? I'm not saying everyone's going to re-register Democrat, but frighten enough reasonable people and 2006 could go very badly for the GOP.

Not to mention 2008 (although I still say Hillary is the wrong candidate... OK, it's a little early to get in to it).

So go on, Reverend Falwell! Preach it, Bob Jones! Get those people good and riled.

We've got cookies and milk over here on our side. That's not a bribe, moderate Republicans, I'm just saying they're here if you want some.


This post on the Narcissus Scale: 8.5


Pops

- posted by Pops @ 12:32 PM