Once In a Lifetime

Salon.com published an interesting piece today by Gary Kamiya, titled How Bush helped the GOP commit suicide, which is largely based on the results of a long-term study by the Pew Research Center which shows Americans are turning away from the Republican party (and, though, not necessarily turning to the Democratic party instead).

The Iraq War, regressive taxation, Enron, Katrina, and scandal after scandal after scandal -- there are many reasons to blame Bush, Cheney and Rove for recent GOP tribulations, but there are also structural issues at work.

The Republican party as long relied on intolerant right-wing Christians to turn out their vote, without giving that crucial base much in return. It was easy for the GOP to put off this group by blaming the evil liberals for their own lack of action on abortion and "family values" issues back when the Democrats still had some power in DC, but once Bush and Republicans took over all three branches of government, they didn't have that excuse anymore. And what we saw was that the real problem was a lack of support for the Republican base's extreme positions on those issues. No one wants to live in a world of James Dobson's making -- probabaly not even James Dobson, if he was really being honest about it. Or Jerry Falwell, or Ted Haggard, or any of the rest of the flabby, white men who claim moral superiority over the rest of us. These are people who live in the shattered remains of glass houses with their third wives and secret lovers and offshore bank accounts while they preach conservative values to the rest of us.

In the meantime, the rest of us go about life. And the rest of us are, by and large, good people. We're Democrats and Republicans, Christians and non-Christians. And we're starting to figure some of this stuff out. Just because George Bush mumbles something about Jesus once in a while doesn't mean that he's a good Christian man, or that the Republican agenda is a Christian agenda. But we're not there yet, as demostrated by this disturbing tidbit in Kamiya's article:

The survey does not paint a uniformly flattering picture of America. A scary 43 percent of Americans think torture can often or sometimes be justified -- perhaps a tribute to the work of "24" creator and Rush Limbaugh pal Joel Surnow. In a singularly telling finding, 45 percent of those who identified themselves as liberal Democrats said torture was never justified, compared to 18 percent of conservative Republicans. These contrasting responses should be deeply troubling to traditional conservatives; they show how badly their movement has degenerated under Gingrich and Bush. When did being a conservative start meaning signing off on torture? Isn't there a ban on "cruel and unusual punishment" in the Eighth Amendment of some old document drawn up by some geezers in powdered wigs that conservatives are supposed to care passionately about? And what would Jesus think about torture? Apparently being a conservative no longer means believing in a transcendental morality.

Torture, people? Really? Have you seriously thought about this, read about it, prayed about it, discussed it with your mom and your preacher and your philosophy prof and your kids and decided, yeah, torture -- that's what we need? I don't think so. I think y'all have been letting Karl Rove get to you a little bit too much. I suspect if you really think about this, America, you'll realize that torture is not a place a Great Nation goes. We're better than that. We don't have to go there.

We might be stuck with this twisted, immoral administration for another 665 days (at most), but we don't have to sling ourselves down there in the gutter with them. Let's not go there, OK?

And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right? ...am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
My god! ...what have I done?

Mormons and Torture

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has caused quite a stir by refusing to condemn the use of torture, inviting ridicule and resignation. I admit that I was puzzled, along with many others, that the Church would align themselves with such torture-lovers as Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzales, but then I realized the problem: how can the Mormons come out strongly against our current policy of torture in a country where Donny and Marie are still running loose? It would seem so hypocritical.

SOTU links

Liveblogger list

Drinking games: here, here, here and here (if you need a charity for that last one, go here)

Advice from Jesus' General

SOTU speech text

Check out this line from the speech:

"The United States has no right, no desire, and no intention to impose our form of government on anyone else. That is one of the main differences between us and our enemies."

Heh. He was able to say that with a straight face.

Then from the post-SOTU Reid:

"And after we worked so hard to eliminate the deficit, his policies have added trillions to the debt - in effect, a 'birth tax' of $36,000 on every child that is born."

And a non-SOTU tidbit (via Sravana): According to Alberto Gonzales, what happened to John McCain while he was in Vietnam was okie-dokie! That sort of treatment is expected in a war and unless your organs failed or you died, it doesn't qualify as torture.

(btw, I suppose this goes without saying, but anyone who votes to confirm Alberto Gonzales for the AG job, so matter his or her political persuasion, never deserves support from true progressives -- not under any circumstances. That's it. Finis.)

Gonzales: against human rights of all sorts!

Not only was Gonzales the architect of the Bush Adminstration's now supposedly repudiated policy of torture, but he also might have his fingerprints all over the Federal Marriage Amendment. Has this guy ever met a human right that he DID like? It would appear that in his world, human rights are something to be extended only to a select few people. Gosh, I didn't think it was possible, but Alberto might actually be a worse AG than Ashcroft was.