bringing it all back home
a senator's best friend?
Nick at Blogging of the President has the right take on the Republican cultural offensive.
How do we do wage culture war right back? We target ALL MODERATE (and not so moderate ie. that bitch, Rick Santorum) REPUBLICANS IN BLUE STATES. They want to support their crazy fucking party? Then they should have to pay for it. (snip) A simple scary ad. "You grew up in a pro-choice world. A vote for INSERT MODERATE LOCAL CONGRESSMAN HERE will ensure that you lose that choice." A vote for Governor Pataki is a vote to reverse Roe V. Wade. A vote for Arlen Spector is a vote to give your tax money to evangelical Churches. A vote for Mayor Bloomberg is a vote to have Creationism taught in schools.
That may be putting it a little harshly, but it's absolutely right - bring it on for every Blue State Republican (or BSRs, as I call them.) Raise the price of collaboration with the New Republicanism and its agenda. Let the Republicans know that if they want to win campaigns through polarization, they're going to lose some the same way. The Democrats have been using Marquis of Queensbury rules while the Republicans have been fighting with chains and knives.
The new mantra: a vote for a Republican is a vote for extremism. That will be effective, and you know what - it's true. BSRs showed us during the campaign that when the chips were down they would twist into whatever contortions Karl Rove asked of them. Pataki lied about Kerry. Guiliani disparaged the troops. Santorum raised the visibility of man/dog love* as a lifestyle option. (That one might not have been Rove's idea, though; it has the ring of personal inspiration to it.)
As we used to say in the 60's, bring the war back home. We don't have to lose moderate voters by pointing out the consequences of voting for a BSR, either. The Republicans seem to retain some moderates no matter how extreme they get. In fact, they've shown us that once you've gone all medieval you can backpedal just a little and people think you're more moderate than the other guy. You might even get a hug from Tom Daschle - a good and decent man who just didn't understand what he was up against.
*Prompting my favorite reporter’s quote of the year: “I'm sorry, I didn't think I was going to talk about "man on dog" with a United States senator, it's sort of freaking me out.” He was experiencing that "clash of cultures" we've been hearing so much about. And people say we're too out there for them? Santorum should at a minimum observe the same rules that Mafia porn distributors allegedly once used: no bestiality.
