Grand Bargains
Lorelei Kelly and Tom Lantos write a bit about an unexpected meeting of the minds between the US and Iran -- both governments hate gays and lesbians! This was not what those of us looking for a "grand bargain" between the Washington and Teheran had in mind. In addition, this seems to be a flip-flop -- the Bush administration was for granting the International Lesbian and Gay Association consultative status at the UN Economic and Social Council before they were against it. So what's up?
Politics, one is inclined to say. We're looking at the power of the Christian right. But what, really, were the political stakes here? What bad things would have happened to the GOP if this had gone the other way? I have a hard time imagining mass social conservative defections to the Democrats over something as obscure and random as this. I like me some liberal economic policy, but nothing we have is that compelling at the end of the day.
So I don't know. Has pandering just become a reflex? Do the Bushies really believe this stuff about the evils of homosexuality? It's a bit of a mystery.
We'll never know what the various key players in BushCo really believe about homosexuality, and it appears that it doesn't really matter. Personal convictions don't underlay their main objectives and concerns, on this issue or dozens of others.
Everything in BushCo is about maintaining power and in particular about maintaining electoral control. That is the only scale that matters.
What would they gain by taking any action, no matter how obscure, that appeared to position gays and lesbians as human beings entitled to equal protection of the laws and innate human rights? Nothing that matters to their goal.
Anyway, it would be hard to think of any international group that BushCo would care less about than the UN Economic and Social Council. It bothers them not at all if those opposed to the consultative role for the gay group include some of the worst offenders of human rights, and that association with these nay-sayers doesn't square up with the US's repeated assertions that we care about freedom.
January 27, 2006 12:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
FOREIGNID: 87273
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AUTHOR: Tad Brennan
DATE: 01/27/2006 07:13:30 AM
January 27, 2006 7:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
I remember when I was this innocent and naive concerning the Bush administration. Paraphrasing Delong: The Bush administration is worse than you could possibly imagine. Even after you take into account that the administration is worse than you could possibly imagine.
Seriously, the person the Bush team put into position to make that call really believes in the evils of homosexuality.
Why did the Czar put that particular Cossack into position, as opposed to a Cossack who, like the Czar, may say homosexuality is evil for political effect but who truly if secretly has a noble heart?
It's a mystery, but the last thing I would question is the noble heart of the Czar.
January 27, 2006 9:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Pandering to the right really has become reflexive for the Bushies. Bush's political instincts were born from his experiences in his father's administration. Bush 1.0 lost his second term, and it seems Bush 2.0 is determined, more than anything, not to make the same mistakes (or "mistakes") that his father made. That means: finishing the job in Iraq, no matter what the cost (which his father failed to do), never raising taxes (A.B.C. - always be cutting, even in the face of complete fiscal armageddon), and never missing an opportunity, no matter now small, to suck up to your religious base (Bush 1.0 tried real hard, but was never the darling of the religious right the way that Reagan or his 1988 opponent for the nomination Pat Robertson were). Mix in Karl Rove's POV (where every day is total political war, and every issue is an opportunity to pander to your base and do dirt to you opponents) and you get...this.
January 27, 2006 3:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pandering doesn't begin to cover it. This is the bread and butter of how Republicans get elected.
Republicans have cornered the righteous Christian outrage market. It's a multimillion dollar industry, manufacturing outrage in the form of pamphlets, mass mailings, web sites and television and radio programs.
A good portion of this money cycles its way through the GOP
And the main ingredient is sex, because nothing else captures peoples' interest and whips them into a frenzy quite as effectively.
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January 27, 2006 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink