RockThrower

Evangelicals for Bush

American Theocracy?

If you want an inside glimpse the role Evangelicals played in the Bush Victory read Evangelicals Say They Led Charge For the GOP By Alan Cooperman and Thomas B. Edsall in Monday's Washington Post (November 8, 2004; Page A01).  You may have to fill out the membership agreement to see the article, but it is worth a read.

Mencken Speaks

What would Mencken say?

From a friend and fellow rockthrower....

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." -H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

Moral Values?

Kool-Aid Anyone?

There has been much gnashing of teeth in recent days about the need for Democrats to embrace “moral values.”  The key to electoral victory in 2008 the theory goes, is for  Democrats to be born again, to wash themselves of the sins of the secular coasts and embrace the religious and moral values of states in the South and Midwest.

But before we all drink the KoolAid and put fish emblems on our cars, let’s step back and take a closer look.

What are these “moral values” everyone is talking about? Don’t ask me, I 'm one of those secular heathens, but Gary Langer, the director of polling for ABC News, wrote an important piece in Saturday’s New York Times questioning the relevance of exit poll findings on “Moral Values.”  Langer says that the term represents a “poorly devised exit poll question that threatens to undermine our understanding of the 2004 presidential elections.”  His reasoning is that “moral values” is a loaded phrase, a kind of catch-all that attracts voters for a variety of reasons. By comparison he says, “imagine if Patriotism were on the list.” Democrats might do well to listen to what Langer is saying.

Secondly, before we all convert, let’s take another look at the results of the election and the electoral map.  John Kerry, who George Bush (sorry, I just can’t call him president) calls the most liberal member of the Senate, came within one state (Ohio) of defeating an incumbent president.  That’s not a bad start. 

California, Oregon and Washington are solidly Democratic, and Republicans had no chance of winning Illinois, New York or any state in the Northeast.  Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota were also wins for Kerry.  Democrats would do well to build on that base, rather than try to focus on southern states we probably can’t win by acting like Republicans.   We should be thinking of the West Coast as a blue wave that can wash over into Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico, and taking steps to secure states in the upper Midwest.  At least one major Democrat is thinking along those lines.   In a story by Mary Curtius in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times Senator Diane Feinstein, (D-California) is quoted as telling Democrats that  “with changing demographics I think the West is the place Democrats should turn their attention to.  We need to expand the Democratic platform to the Western part of the United Statesand build a bulwark of strength that will equal the Northeast.”  Feinstein is right.  It will be a lot easier for Democrats to win New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada, than it will be to win Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama.   

Finally, Democrats should not let the discussion of values be defined by Republican conservatives.  A measure banning gay marriage is not a statement of moral values, it’s a mean political trick designed to divert and divide voters from their common interests. But Democrats can and should engage voters in real questions of values.  Fiscal responsibility, good jobs, quality healthcare, environmental protection and peace and security are all issues of moral values. Democrats just need to do a better job of listening to and talking with voters about them.

Mandate My Ass

We are too liberal, no, we're not liberal enough.  We have got to find the middle.  blah, blah, blah.

Quit whining.  The bottom line is we lost by 140,000 votes.  More than 55 million Americans voted for John Kerry. That's not a Bush mandate. Karl Rove dosn't get the gay marriage ban on the state ballot in Ohio and Bush is packing the Uhaul.

Bringing the Country Together, or, Let’s Set the Dogs Loose and See What Happens.

Well, I’m glad were clear about that.

At Thursday’s gloat session, er, I mean Press Conference, Bush said:

“I will reach out to everyone who shares our goals.”

Does this mean I am not invited to the Inaugural?

I guess that is why among his first calls were conversations with newly elected Republican Senators Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Jim DeMint of South Carolina.

With 100% ratings from virtually every anti-abortion organization in the nation, their goal is to overrun Roe vs. Wade and end safe and legal access to abortion.  And while they are at it maybe they will make birth control against the law and put all gays in concentration camps.

Coburn is the Bush appointee to the Presidential Council on HIV and Aids who thinks condoms ought to be banned.

As a member of congress, this whack job repeatedly tried to ban RU-486 and sought to amend a bill requiring coverage of prescription contraceptives to exclude methods that “interfere with fertilization or terminate a pregnancy,” which would effectively exclude widely used forms of contraception.

As a Senate candidate he listed “protecting the sanctity of all human life, including the unborn as the top issue of his campaign and pledged to introduce and/or cosponsor a "Human Life Amendment" to the Constitution that defines "person" as a human being beginning at fertilization/conception.

During his campaign he also said "I favor the death penalty for abortionists and other people who take life." [Associated Press, 7/9/04]

As for the legal and civil rights of gay people, Robert Schlesinger in a profile this Fall in Salon quotes Coburn as warning  "The gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power ... That agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today. Why do you think we see the rationalization for abortion and multiple sexual partners? That's a gay agenda."

Then there is Demint, who has consistently received 100 % anti aborton ratings. Among his legislative priorities he lists ensuring the confirmation process for judges who believe that unborn children deserve constitutional rights, ending the distribution of contraceptives to minors at public health clinics, and requiring the FDA to suspend and review its approval of RU-486.

I guess this is who George Bush is planning on to help bring the country together.

More likely, they will serve as the  administration’s attack dogs in pursuing the anti abortion agenda of the religious right while working to deny civil rights for gays by pursuing a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

More on “DeMinted” later.

Unity My Ass

Kumbaya.

There, I''m done with that.

John Kerry said the right things. But anybody who doesn't think that Bush is coming for blood hasn't been paying attention the past four years.

At least last time Bush mouthed the words " I'm a uniter, not a divider."

This time, the first words of Uncle Dick's mouth were to claim a "mandate."

(memo to Cheny- get real bud, if Karl Rove doesn't put the gay marriage ban on the Ohio State ballot, the Bush twins are looking for new bars to hang out in in Crawford.)

Meanwhile, the religious right is already looking to cash it's chits.

In Ron Brownstein's piece this morning in the Los Angeles Times he quotes the Rev. James Kennedy, president of Coral Ridge Ministries in Florida as saying " now that values voters have delivered for George Bush, he must deliver for their values."

Last time I checked, my values did not include discriminating against citizens based on their sexual orienation and to deny them the full and equal protection of the laws of the United States.

Gird up Democrats, now is the time to fight.

And journalist, remember, this administration has a habit of telling you the sun is out when it's pouring rain. You might want to look outside some time.

Up next

Who will the administration's new attack dogs be against abortion, family planning and reproductive health?

Gay Marriage Issue Determines Presidency

November 3, 2004

Gay Marriage Issue Determines Presidential Race

by John McDonald

It is wedge politics at its worst. The United States just re-elected George Bush as president. Not because of his stand on terrorism. Not because of his position on Iraq. Not because of his economic record. George Bush got re-elected because religious conservatives in Ohio came out of the bushes to vote for a state measure to prevent Gay marriage.

Karl Rove is a genius. Evil, cynical, mean spirited, and manipulative, but a certified political genius. He drove a wedge so deep into the Ohio electorate it diverted voters from their concerns over the economy and security.

Somehow he figured out that a state initiative banning gay marriage would be the red meat that would bring religious conservatives out in droves to cast their votes against sin, and while they were at it, vote for George Bush. In effect, Rove used the issue of gay marriage to create a fire and brimstone wall to protect the President.

And it worked. Exit polls data found that 23 percent of Ohio voters listed moral values as their most important reason for voting. Forty two percent of the states voters described themselves as either white conservative Protestants or white evangelical born again. Sixty two percent of Ohio voters supported the state ban on gay marriage. The initiative clearly energized the religious conservative voters that make up the Bush base.

Never mind that there has never been a single gay marriage in Ohio. In a state that has lost more than 200,000 jobs, in which the vast majority of families make less than the typical tax cut given by President Bush to the nation’s richest 1 percent of tax payers, conservative religious voters chose to vote against their own economic interests to ensure that gay men and women are denied the benefits of marriage.

Never mind that more than 1,100 U.S. soldiers have been killed in a war that the majority of Americans disagree with and believe is going badly. In Ohio, no price is apparently too high to pay to ensure that somewhere in their state, gay people aren’t having sex as a married couple.

Never mind that on President Bush’s watch, America suffered the worst foreign attack on U.S. soil in our history and then pursued an approach to the threat of terrorism that many would argue has made us less safe, damaged our relations with our longstanding allies and eroded the world’s trust and respect for America. Conservative religious voters in Ohio have made us safe from gays.

I feel so much better.