> Things rise and fall for a reason. The majority of people rejected the > liberal candidate, as they said, on "moral" grounds. The rise in Christian > extremism, so bewildering to us, must also have a reason. What do you think > that reason is? Look at the polls of November 2 and you may find some > reasons there. A couple of hundred thousand undecided voters in Ohio could > have made a big difference; yet something made those voters go the other > way. What do you think it was? > > I mean, with all due respect for academia, white suburban husbands and wives > have been ridiculed for generations in scholarly publications and literary > criticism as if they were the very personification of self-delusion (the > "breeders"). Just go to an MLA convention and peruse, just peruse. How do > you think people feel about that over in Ohio, raising their kids and trying > to put bread on the table? Being married and having a child, changes the > equation a little bit; it kind of complicates the idea of liberalism a bit. > The world, is, after all, crazy. Some, understandably, may find it all a bit > too much. The election was won on two issues. 1) Gay Marriage. Karl Rove was brilliant to put gay marriage referendums in key states. That brought the Christians out in droves. Once they were at the polls to vote on that issue, they also voted for Bush. This classic Lee Atwater politics: terrorize the voters and get them to vote. 2) Stupidity. Bush voters are ignorant. They don't know even basic facts about Iraq, much less anything else. The Bush White House and Fox News isn't going to educate them. I don't think people voted FOR Bush, they voted to ban gay marriage and they voted their (ignorant) fears. They were manipulated and stampeded by Karl Rove. That won the election, yes, but it's not a political agenda or a platform. There's no motivation for change in that. They're homophobic, but on an issue that's totally irrelevant, in any meaningful way, to them; they are hardly going to fret over whether to accept a wedding proposal from a gay person. This is like the people who worried that the Viet Cong were going to come ashore on the beaches of Iowa. It's purely emotional anxiety. The error for the opposition was, once again, not to sink that low. The Democrats and the anti-Bush coalition thought they could win by informing people about Bush. That brought out a huge turnout. However, the Bush people got a larger turnout, not on attacking Kerry, but on attacking gays. I don't think anyone realized that the gay marriage bans would be so effective. Tikkun and others have argued that the opposition doesn't respect religion and the value of religion in the lives of Bush supporters. Oh, no. It's quite the opposite: I have lost total respect for religion now because of the election of Bush. Evangelical Christians are total idiots. That's a provable statement: they are ignorant on Iraq, they are homophobic, and despite their bleating about "Values", they voted for a White House that carried out an illegal war with no justification, based on lies, and killed 100,000 Iraqi. Religion in America is the new fascism: a cult based on fear, chauvinism, and perpetual war against its enemies. Those enemies arise from its own psychological and emotional depths. Forget studying the Nazi of 50 years ago and whether Heidegger was a Nazi and the Six Million. Let's study the USA today. Let's see how fascism grows. Let's watch where this will go. The Bushies must kept their voters in a terrorized frenzy: so who is going to be lynched next? Iran? North Korea? And what will happen to the Jews? They're the canaries in this very dark coal mine. Bush has already announced he will punish those who aren't with him. 75% of Jews voted against Bush. What will he do to Israel? yrs, andreas www.andreas.com ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html