Terminators v. Bravehearts
by phil on Wednesday Nov 3, 2004 2:23 PM
government
Niall is a witty poster on plastic.com and I've mirrored one of his posts here before. Below are his thoughts on the future of the U.S.
Well, Kerry has conceded, so let's do the math.
The Naderites of this election turned out to be the gay marriage advocates, who single-handedly brought conservative Christians to the voting booths in droves. The Democratic Party will duly take note of this fact. So don't expect the Dems to throw themselves into any more gay lifestyle enhancement issues any time soon. Which means that gay marriage zealots have not just shot themselves in the foot, but everyone else as well.
The Republicans have swept all of the Federal institutions (Presidency, Senate, House), and we will soon be living with the Scalia Supreme Court. This means three things.
First, the Republicans now constitute the political center, not "the Right".
Second, all meaningful political debate — which is to say, any political debate that has a chance of resulting in legislation or action — will now be taking place within the Republican party. The Democrats are completely marginalized — again. Which means in turn that...
Third, Republican predominance will only sharpen the internal divisions within their party, and bring them out into the open. The deficit hawks, the anti-neocon Republicans, are going to start vying for real power. And Bush may actually want to support them now, as a way of distancing himself from the disasters of his first term.
This means that the real political struggle will be between the Schwarzenegger Republicans — the pragmatic fiscal conservatives who hate the Religious Right — and the Mel Gibson Republicans — the wide-eyed religious wackos and Israel-firster neocon zombies. Between Terminator and Braveheart.
Which leads to an interesting dilemma. Is it worth it to continue to support the Democrats? Or would social change be better served by supporting the Terminators against the Bravehearts? Were the Log Cabin Republicans right all along?
It's a tantalizing question.
-Niall
