Title : A few morning-after thoughts
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A few morning-after thoughts
It says much about the state of our culture that we're cheering the victory of a decent, well-qualified Dem over an accused child molester. Even before the WP first published the investigative piece which sealed Roy Moore's fate, he was considered a bizarre character -- bizarre even by Alabama standards.This race should not have been this close. The fact that it was close must force Democrats to rethink their strategies.
In order to defeat Trump and the fascist revival, Democrats need more wins in purple and red states. In other races, Democrats won't run against accused molesters. We cannot expect the gods of politics to keep giving us Roy Moores.
Losers don't legislate. In many parts of the country, "progressive purists" will always lose. So we need to define areas where liberal purity can be compromised. I propose these three:
1. Abortion. I know that the very mention of this word will set off feminists, who will no doubt want to recite a pro-abortion speech that I have heard many (MANY) times since the 1970s. Please don't bother. I already agree with every word of that speech. If women lose the right to choose abortion, the nation will suffer a great tragedy. I also strongly support Planned Parenthood.
But: As paradoxical as it may seem, the right to abortion faced less danger when the Democratic party made room for a nearly-extinct creature called the anti-abortion Democrat. The great danger comes not from Congress but from the Supreme Court. If women lose the right to choose abortion, the Court will be to blame.
A Democratic majority in the Senate means that a Republican president cannot expect an ultra-conservative zealot to sail through his confirmation hearings. A Democratic senator who opposes abortion is still likely to vote "no" if everyone else in his party opposes a nominee to the Court.
In the days of Reagan and the Bushes, Republican strategists probably were not serious in their opposition to abortion. The issue always helped to herd evangelicals and conservative Catholics into the polling booths; the last thing the. Nowadays, I suspect that the Trumpers have a genuine desire to see Roe reversed. If that's true, then we have all the more reason to fight like hell for a blue Senate, however unlikely that outcome may now seem.
(As the reader may have noted, I refuse to employ the commonly-heard euphemisms "right to life" and "pro-choice." Since the word "fuck" is now heard in places where it once was considered unspeakable, why should we shiver in supernatural fear of the word "abortion"?)
2. Religion. Few things have been so destructive to the Democratic brand as the ludicrous conflation of liberalism with the neo-atheist movement. In particular, I am appalled by the growing perception that one cannot be a proper progressive unless one embraces the "mythicist" position of the historicity of Jesus. This position is shared by no academic specialists in religious history -- even though most historians are not very religious, and many are agnostics and atheists. In other words, the mythicists occupy a "fringe" position analogous to that of the climate change denialists.
(Bart Ehrman, who hovers between agnosticism and atheism, wrote a book explaining why every university-level religious historian does not question the fact that Jesus existed. I recently heard a podcast in which Ehrman had to answer a mythicist assault on his credentials. Bart Ehrman teaches history at an ivy league university! Meanwhile, the primary "apostle" of mythicism is a ludicrous, fringe-dwelling dolt who writes under the cringe-inducing name of Archaya X.)
In my view, the Democratic party should welcome people of all religious faiths and all levels of faith. From the perspective of hard-nosed, pragmatic politics, Dems should do everything possible to encourage committed Christians to run in contests in the red states. The last Democratic presidential candidate to do well in the south was Jimmy Carter in 1976, whose "born again" approach to Christianity seemed novel, even exotic, on the national stage in that year. Although we're very unlikely to see another 1976, I still think that southerners are more likely to vote "D" if the candidate flaunts his faith.
I am not particularly pious, yet I would happily support a Dem who bleeds on Easter Sunday if doing so gets us closer to the goal of turning Congress blue. The Mueller probe is in mortal peril. We need real congressional investigations of Trump, or fascism will triumph.
3. Guns. Personally, I favor modest regulations in this area, such as background checks and the closing of the "gun show loophole." But we must face facts: Gun control is a toxic issue in the red and purple states.
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