Quote:
Originally posted by LessinSF
I think it is a myopically, phenomenally stupid move by Bush that may cost him the election. The conservatives were already going to vote for him, and all it takes is an incremental further alienation of the middle to push the election to the Dems. One lifelong Republican on this board has told me s/he wants to write a letter to the White House. It won't take many of those, along with Republicans upset about boys in body bags, record deficits, record farm subsidies, etc. to tip the balance.
But for Prohibition (and we all know how well that worked), almost every amendment to the Constitution has granted greater freedoms and civil liberties to people rather than the reverse, particularly where, as here, there is no harm done to anyone else. The parallels to a Reconstruction Era "separate, but equal" are uncanny, as has been noted before, and I think (and hope) they will ultimately bite Bush on the ass. This is going to be the civil rights issue of this decade, and Bush and his ilk are ultimately going to lose it. When this Supreme Court can strike down all sodomy laws just 35 years after the first real public awareness of homosexual rights (Stonestown) despite hundreds of years of discrimination and persecution, the tide has turned and did so quickly. Bush was ill-advised to make this a flagship issue. The tide may be a riptide.
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Less,
1. Bush is struggling to find any flagship issue to take peoples' eyes off Iraq and the jobless recovery. This will have to do, for now.
2. The Amendment will never pass. Conservatives are already saying they're appalled that Bush's people so cavalierly fuck with the fabric of the Republic (Patriot Act, pushing the war w/o a real technical "war vote", etc...).
3. Bush is betting on his base. He needs to make up the moderates and real conservatives he had last time around, but has since lost.
4. Kerry ain't likely to beat him without someone like Edwards on the ticket. Kerry's a fucking corpse. Gore 2004.
