Same-sex marriage in the rear-view mirror? Looks like it. |
A big, bad midterm election disaster just took place, and liberalism took it on the chin. Or, maybe not. I didn't see much liberalism around much of the nation, at least any that was at stake. The Republican victory went virtually unchallenged by the Democrats, from my point of view. Alison Lundergan Grimes wouldn't admit to voting for Barack Obama, a noted centrist, by the way. That's not liberalism taking it on the chin. That's milque-toast Dems acting trรจs squirrelly.
The point is that white fear of flying in the early 21st century does not spell the end of liberalism. I'd make the claim that the exact opposite is happening, like a slow-motion un-crashing of a train.
It's conservatism in its death throes we're witnessing.
Witness this:
- Same-sex marriage, a decade ago a successful Karl-Rove wedge issue, will soon be the law of the land. Oh, Religious Right, where is thy sting?
- Hobby Lobby is not the stupidest Supreme Court decision in history. That spot may always be claimed by Bush v. Gore. But flipping out because someone wants to give away birth control for free (dudes, it was the insurance companies that wanted it because pregnancy is expensive, duh) is no way to win friends and influence people, as in half of them, as in women. It also has the perverse feature of making religion look petty and stupid. (Alito said in his decision that religious beliefs don't need to be rational to trump laws of the land. He said what??) Not good in the long run for conservatism because it makes liberalism look rational, which it is. People are bound to catch on.
- Denying science, whether it's climate or biology, isn't a long-term strategy for appealing to the masses. Yes, it works short-term. Eventually, though, people catch on. When it's only the conservatives saying, "I'm not a scientist," while the rest of the world is working together to attempt to mitigate climate change, conservatives end up looking idiotic and desperate.
- Same with evolution. Everyone accepts that viruses and bacteria mutate and change into more dangerous germs, yet religious conservatives maintain that God made us just the way we are. Which is it? Oh yeah, I forgot God made exceptions for germs. They're living things, but they get to mutate. Man, not so much. Gimme a break.
- Yes, science will win. Derp has a sell-by date.
- When our infrastructure is in tatters, people will get irritable at the side of the debate that wouldn't let government "be the solution." That's not the liberals, by the way.
- When it's a Democratic woman that is the first to be president, the conservative freakout won't look good on their resumes. And her priorities are going to be her priorities.
- About income inequality? Did you ever think about the underlying story of Hunger Games? The rich assholes in the capital don't get to live like that forever while the poor masses remain poor while serving the rich. It's called revolution, bitches. Could Hunger Games be radicalizing a whole generation? Who knows? But it doesn't make conservatives fighting on behalf of the JOB CREATORS look like the good guys.
- Healthcare, OMG, healthcare. Obamacare sort of has a Pottery Barn kind of rule (there is no Pottery Barn rule, but follow me on this one). After Obamacare -- whether it works or the GOP somehow squelches it -- we're going to have to fix it. If Obamacare "broke" healthcare, then fixing healthcare doesn't mean we're going back to how bad it was before. Fixing it will involve examining how a good healthcare system should work. What if that examination leads to single-payer or a mere expansion of Medicare to include everyone. Yeah, there might be a temporary return to the bad old days, but we won't stay there. Advantage: liberals.
- Social Security, what to do? Cut it? Leave it the same? Expand it? So far, the tea-partiers have been fooled into thinking the conservatives want to preserve Social Security and Medicare. When they get that it's the other way around -- maybe after the GOP gains control for one whole election cycle, including the presidency -- the liberals will get credit for "saving' it.
- Lastly, when the Supreme Court shows its true political colors with a handful of toxic decisions -- Citizens United and Hobby Lobby are already in the bag -- then the circle will be unbroken. After all, it won't have been the liberal justices that brought these decisions to fruition, it will have been the Five Conservative Catholic Males who done it.
It starts with the immigration issue when Barack Obama sets millions of undocumented immigrants free of the chains that have bound them in fear. Conservative will howl and flail, and Hispanics and Asians will trend strongly Democratic for days to come. That will lead to more flailing by White Christian Males and their freaked out subservient wives.
Eventually, the party's over and the Party's over. Fox News will have actually hastened the day. When you keep a lot of people in the dark, you don't let them see what's coming until it's hit them.
Thanks Fox News!
(Liberal blogger salivating some more...)
Sharia law bad! Biblical law good! Constitutional? My ass... |
This is going to take a while is all.
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