In the 2000 election and a little bit of the 2004 election, the Repugnicans could simply push their "hot button" issues of God, Guns, and Gays to motivate their voters. But that old trick has become passe' now and just doesn't have the impact it did a decade ago.
In 2000, we were still enjoying some of the good life of the Clinton administration. People were working, jobs weren't being sent overseas, all the wars (more acurately, skirmishes) we participated in were over before they started. We enjoyed a good reputation on the world stage due to our foreign policy. And, most importantly, we had a surplus in the Treasury! Things were so good that we were the perfect victims for the Fear Mongers.
The GOP spent eight years trying to pin some crime on President Clinton and, failing that, attempted the same with his wife, When they failed at impeachment for the flimsiest of charges, they had little left except fear. So they created the fear that Liberals, Progressives, and the Democratic Party were trying to take their God away in any way they could imagine... and they were VERY imaginative! Then, for those that didn't fear "god" being taken away, they pointed accusing fingers at those trying to control guns and crime as "trying to take our guns away"! Finally, for those who might still have some sense of security in place, they trotted out a Gay person and claimed they were trying to advance an agenda that included them "recuiting our kids to their sinful ways"!
We watched as the Fear Fector did it's worst in 2000 and 2004. In 2006, they realized the price to be paid for Fear-based Voting. The Fear-based voter got what it voted for and that was nothing but more fear. They were in no better place after three national elections. God's not any better off. Guns are still available; even assualt rifles are legal now! And Gay people are no better or worse off than they were in 1999. The net of the three "hot button" issues? Zero!
It appears however, that the GOP still hasn't gotten the message. The "debates" in North Carolina offered some insight into the formation of the GOP platform and, surprise, it's no different than it was in 2000! It's still God, Guns and Gays and that just won't do it anymore when there's an 800 gorilla called Iraq in the middle of the room.
(You know, W, if you're looking for a War Czar to act as the Commander-in-Chief, you should consider Bill Clinton. He had two wars while in office and an uncooperative, adversarial Congress yet managed to rise above that with hardly any losses and no lasting entanglement.)
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So...first of all, I have to say this is a pretty little blog you two have here. I heard you (the 17 yr old) plug the site on Air America and wanted to check it out. I'm from Oregon. Although I appreciate the sentiment that the churn of fear-based homobphobic voting is losing its affect, I have to disagree that the '06 midterms were anything to justify this with.
There were two major issue that pulled the power out of the churn this time around. One was the fact that neither Arlen Spector or John McCain voted for it, and they made this public before casting their nays. The other is that, whatever affect it did have was overcorrected by the GOP abandoning the Latino vote in '06. Without these two subscription the aid of gay-bashing even wasn't eneugh to pull off a win in their current state. Gay's-not-okay is still going to be a formidable news cycle in the future, and I'm sure there'll be plenty of political retribution for supportive Dems.
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