Many Democrats may be total reactionaries when it comes to
defending set-in-stone New Deal/Great Society centralized
government programs and declaring "No reform yesterday, no reform
today, no reform tomorrow" -- just more spending down the
bureaucratic rat holes to create even more anti-market, big
government "solutions" that will keep the apparachiks fully
employed. But too many Republicans are total reactionaries when it
comes to social issues and cultural matters, especially "topic G."
A brief sample from current U.S. Senate and House campaigns (many
via www.politics1.com):
Rep. Tom Coburn (the GOP Senate candidate in Oklahoma): "[L]esbianism is so rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they'll only let one girl go to the bathroom. Now think about it. Think about that issue. How is it that that's happened to us?"
Rep. Jim DeMint (the GOP Senate candidate in South Carolina): "If a person wants to be publicly gay, they should not be teaching in the public schools."
Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kansas): "Marriage is a privilege the State should protect, but it is not a right for same-sex partners, multiple partners, or any configuration of people and animals that express love for one another."
Mel Martinez (the GOP Senate candidate in Florida): Blasted his primary opponent as "anti-family" and "the new darling of the homosexual extremists" because he supported a hate crimes bill that included gays.
And there's much more of the same. Worse, gays are in a Catch-22 when it comes to the GOP -- because so few gays support Republicans, the party feels no need to concern itself about gay opinion, especially at the risk of alienating its social conservative base.
If the GOP loses the White House and even the Senate, that
strategy could be bankrupt. Of course, the economy will probably
tank as we have four years of Carter/Mondale redux, but that's the
choice we face. Hail the two-party duopoly!