In the last week, I've had seen several extemporaneous conversations with Republican friends and relatives. Some of them are Born-Again Christians. Some of them are fiscal conservatives. Some of them are moderates who voted for Bush because they thought the Republicans were the best equipped to fight terrorism. One of them is a Republican blogger. To cut to the chase, they've all got "buyer's remorse." And it isn't because of the bankruptcy bill, social security reform or the rise of the influence of the religious Right.
If they drank "the Kool-aid" then this is more than "buyer's remorse" - many of the people who believed all the emotionally charged messages that the GOP and Christian right have used to perpetuate their agenda are now suffering severe inner conflict. The road that they so blindly followed now a appears to be a back road to hell instead a highway to heaven.
Steve Gilliard pulled this out of his comments and posted it. .
Driftglass posted this in comments and it's too damn funny to stay there.
IMHO it's as simple as: "Never jump into bed with someone who's crazier than you are."
For the Suburban Gated, the non-deranged gunnies and the Tax Cuts Uber Alles Republicans, it's all jolly good fun having a romp with the Fundies...as long as they keep delivering the 20% margin the GOP must have to win anything and as long as they stay the fuck away from my house and family, its all just good kinky fun...
...until the sun comes up, and you realize that the Electoral Candy you were offered was just bait to get you into the Windowless Fundy Panel Truck. Oops.
And now you're waaaay out in the country somewhere you don't recognize without your pants, and you start to figure our that all the Burning Crosses and Swastikas and Apocalyptic Paraphernalia that tricks out the inside of the van isn't tatted-up Goth Chick posturing.
And Randall Terry and Tom DeLay wave to you from the front seat and say, "Mornin' shug! Get ready; we gonna burn us some 'a them Chirst Hatin' Abortionists today." Or Fags. Or Negros. Or Liberals. Or Ay-rabs. Or Jews. Or, really, Anybody.
And all of the slack-jawed yokels who were so eagerly helpful while you were passing you're Lovely Tax Cuts are sitting around you giggling...and armed to their snaggled teeth.
And then you hear, "Bring Out The Gimp." (Which, for my money, should be the Democrats' Lead Media Message for the next four months.)
Oh. God. You mean these crazy fucks were serious? Like, really, really serious?!
No shit they're serious, Suburban Weekend Bad-Ass -- and it's not exactly like you weren't given Ample Warning: Now they have your shriveled nuts in a razor-lined C-clamp, they want the very high interest vig on the Electoral Loan they made you to pay for your Optional War and Drunken Safety Net Shredding Good Times.
driftglass, I bow in your general direction. This is brilliant. And thank you Steve for posting it so we can all enjoy it.
When you read an editorial explaining why guns are good for society, or why DDT is the most humanitarian gift that can be given to the tropics, or how public education is an Abomination Unto the Lord, or that taxes are against the will of Heaven/the Founding Fathers, or that Womanhood belongs on the pedestal labeled Family & Faith, or that there is no proof that smog and dioxin hurt the biosphere, or us, or that we will all be overwhelmed by the Unassimilated Racial Menace of your choice, or how War is good for the Manly Virtues of a civilization -
check and see if the author isn't getting a paycheck, indirectly, from someone who makes bullets, or chemicals, or who got burnt by labour in the '20s or the '60s and is still sore over having to pay women fair wages/hire blacks/offer benefits, or who is in trouble for releasing toxins in the local water supply, or who associated with Charles Lindbergh in the '30s, or stands to gain significantly in continuing government contracts from A Strong National Defense! or who is selling automobiles and their fuel.
If someone is preaching this, and turns out to be sponsored by outfits with historical ties to repression, profit at all human costs, and an elitist ideology of Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny - well, if it looks, quacks, and walks like a duck, perhaps it belongs in the Duck Pit, rather than in the lecture hall.
This is meant as a starting point, by no means is it comprhensive.
