LA Times: Those Who Voted for Bush May Be in for a Big Surprise

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-chait5nov05,0,6348177.column

Dear rural/exurban Christian conservative voters: Congratulations on your election victory. By going to the polls in unprecedented numbers Tuesday, you overwhelmed an enormous Democratic turnout and returned President Bush to office, along with a number of very conservative senators. Now Bush is preparing to repay your efforts by moving immediately on your highest priorities: a flat tax and privatizing Social Security.

Oh, wait. You didn't particularly hanker for those things, did you? The election is so far in the past now that it has receded into a hazy memory. But as I recall, you voted for Bush because of his position on one issue — he opposes gay marriage — and on the general principle that he is a godly man who shares your values. Now Bush has decided, conveniently enough, that those values are identical to those of his wealthy financiers. (Go to any meeting of the Club for Growth, a group of affluent, libertarian-leaning Bush backers who mostly live in Washington and New York City. I'm sure you'll find them, like victorious Okla-homophobe Sen. Tom Coburn, deeply concerned about rampant high school lesbianism in the Sooner State.)

It's good to see that the printed press hasn't completely lost it.

the hell they were voting for. Bush voters are the most stupid people on the planet.

In order to put a chink in the Bush coalition, we progressives must find a way to appeal to these same voters who cast a vote for Bush based on an irrational hatred of gay Americans and a overriding loathing of abortion. By exploiting these issues, Mr. Bush successfully convinced the chickens to support Colonel Sanders.

We should not believe for a minute that it has to be this way. While we may never get these voters to accept gay rights or abortion, we can still convince them that supporting a progressive economic program is in their interests and that progressives, not neoconservatives, deserve their support.

These ideas were elaborated by me two years ago in this piece, which I invite DUers to read.

Excerpt:

The Republicans would not dare counter with their Horatio Alger pitch of rugged individualism and personal responsibility. They are the party of opportunity? For whom? For those who are already rich and powerful, perhaps. Are they really rich and powerful because they are innately more intelligent or morally superior to the rest of us? Do they want us to believe that those at the top earned their way there by there own prowess? Are Dan Quayle and George W. Bush really the zenith of human evolution? No, it has to do with the privilege that comes with being born to wealth and power, something for which the individual is not responsible.

How dare the Republicans tell the woman scrubbing their floors for them that she is responsible for her poverty? Perhaps this woman grew up in a poor neighborhood and attended a dilapidated and underfunded public school. Perhaps her mother raised her on welfare and her father skipped out. How dare they tell this woman that the fact she toils so and is not the CEO of General Motors is her own fault? Just let them make that pitch to the working poor.

The Republicans will respond, as they often have, by appealing to the fears and prejudices of that we have long associated with Archie. There will be gay marriages; there will be abortion on demand. To which the Democrats can respond that gay rights and abortion have nothing to do with the decline in the quality of life for low-wage earners in America. If every gay person in the world miraculously became straight overnight, even if abortion were outlawed, that will do nothing to help the diminishing purchasing power of the American blue-collar and service workers and their families. Gay rights and abortion do not threaten the survival of the traditional family simply because the traditional family unit is the best way for most people to have children and raise them into productive adults.

The Democrats, without contradicting any gay rights or pro-choice planks in the platform, must not be apologetic and start mumbling about the right of an individual to pursue the dictates of his own sexual orientation or a woman to make her own reproductive decisions; it's time for progressives to stop condescending to these people and assume that they know what their interests really are. Instead of that old limp line that sounds like an apology for supporting human rights, the Democrats must assert to the blue-collar and the low-wage service worker: "Vote for us and you will have better wages and benefits, which will make life easier and better for you and your traditional family."

If the Republicans say that this is class warfare, then let the response be a paraphrase of Patrick Henry: If this is class warfare, let us make the most of it.

good article.

but the repuke lions will also reprise their ancient victory by figuratively and politically slaughtering their own christians ... the "moral values" that returned smirk to our white house are more of their standard bait-and-switch: it's a euphimistic code for racism, classism, chauvinism etc. that have NOTHING whatsoever to do with the universal moral imperatives that urge us to the notion of: "by their works, you shall know them" when applying criteria of mercy, justice and caring.

eom

Each of us has figured out what the consequences of all these proposed programs were as soon as they were proposed. It is actually not hard to figure it out. It was also very obvious that his promise to amend the constitution to outlaw gay marriage was just a ploy to energize his base and to get every single homophobic idiot to vote for him. He never intended to act on it and he knows that it would never pass.

Poor ignorant Bush supporters. I kinda feel sorry for them. They have given Bush 4 more years so he can give their hard earned money to the rich, reward companies for moving jobs overseas, to continue endless wars in which their sons and daughters will be killed, to destroy the environment, and to increase the deficit even more. Great job, MORONS.

The 59 million alleged voters were worried about gays legally f***ing when they voted for Bush. However Bush is going to legally f**k their lives now they've given Bush the free reign to do so by their vote, and along with the newly-gained seats in the House and Senate.

I can't wait to hear the wailing from the Reds in the next year as they get screwed. The only answer I have for them is "STFU, you should have thought about this when you voted on November 2!"

This should be a textbook lesson in critical thinking.

of what they voted for. Not that they will get it. If they were capable
of logic and willing to seek information they wouldn't have voted for him
in the first place.