Saturday, October 25, 2003
Gay Marriage
So the GOP thinks it's found a winning issue in '04: gay marriage. And to judge from a random sampling of the liberal blogosphere, it looks like our side is worried they're right, with folks like Kevin Drum, Hesiod and Atrios ginning up principled strategies for combatting them should they really decide to demagogue the issue. More of this, I say.
At the same time, I also have to say that if they're serious, it could once again demonstrate why the GOP's nickname is the Stupid Party. First, as the party in power, '04 is a referendum on their policies, which have, of course, been a disaster on every front. Playing the gay card practically begs for Democrats to point out the utter bankruptcy of everything else they ran on in '00.
But more to the point, 1992 and 1996 demonstrated pretty convincingly that culture war politics have a nasty way of backfiring. Though long forgotten by now, I sense, in 1991 the Republicans were crowing about making "political correctness" a major campaign issue, no doubt to cover up for Poppy's washout on the fiscal front. It never gathered steam and the Republicans continued to thrash about for wedge issues for the remainder of the campaign. 1996 was of course the high water mark of the culture wars, with Pat Buchanan addressing the Republican convention and scaring the beejeejus out of everyone in a speech Molly Ivins memorably described as "sounding better in the original German."
Indeed, as Joe Conason among others point out, Bush II was picked by the party largely to put daylight (dishonestly, to be sure) between itself and its extremist roots and tactics, which had backfired on them twice in a row. Now, having bankrupted the government, shed milions of jobs, and traduced every promise of moderation sold to the public in 2000, they seem prepared to revert to fearmondering, negative, divisive type. That's a good sign from my point of view, not a worrisome one.
UPDATE: In comments, Patrick Nielsen Hayden corrects my porous recollection about Buchanan's speech, which was in fact given in 1992. Mea culpa.
At the same time, I also have to say that if they're serious, it could once again demonstrate why the GOP's nickname is the Stupid Party. First, as the party in power, '04 is a referendum on their policies, which have, of course, been a disaster on every front. Playing the gay card practically begs for Democrats to point out the utter bankruptcy of everything else they ran on in '00.
But more to the point, 1992 and 1996 demonstrated pretty convincingly that culture war politics have a nasty way of backfiring. Though long forgotten by now, I sense, in 1991 the Republicans were crowing about making "political correctness" a major campaign issue, no doubt to cover up for Poppy's washout on the fiscal front. It never gathered steam and the Republicans continued to thrash about for wedge issues for the remainder of the campaign. 1996 was of course the high water mark of the culture wars, with Pat Buchanan addressing the Republican convention and scaring the beejeejus out of everyone in a speech Molly Ivins memorably described as "sounding better in the original German."
Indeed, as Joe Conason among others point out, Bush II was picked by the party largely to put daylight (dishonestly, to be sure) between itself and its extremist roots and tactics, which had backfired on them twice in a row. Now, having bankrupted the government, shed milions of jobs, and traduced every promise of moderation sold to the public in 2000, they seem prepared to revert to fearmondering, negative, divisive type. That's a good sign from my point of view, not a worrisome one.
UPDATE: In comments, Patrick Nielsen Hayden corrects my porous recollection about Buchanan's speech, which was in fact given in 1992. Mea culpa.
