Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Zeitgeist
Sometimes, there's a video game that perfectly captures the spirit of the times. The direction the nation, and even the world is going. Today, it's this one.
I can live with a Bush win, especially if it seemed like his war on terror blah blah blah strategy was what clinched it. But it wasn't. I wrote something really intemperate this morning when I was still royally hung over, then deleted it. But Rove called it--playing to the base and going harder right, and energizing the evangelicals is what won the election. I'm living in a country where 20% of the electorate said that "morality" was a more important issue to them than the war on terror. And six states just passed constitutional amendments that explicitly deny gay couples any sort of common-law or civil union rights. That's well beyond protecting marriage. And that issue was enough to get those people to the polls. That's really fucking depressing. If that's the level of political discourse in America, if that's the winning strategy, I don't want any part of it.
If the red states want a moral theocracy, I say let them have it. Let that whole part of the country go to heaven in a rowboat. Just leave me the fuck alone. Bill Bennet is already saying Bush has a mandate for a culture war; I think he's probably right. Well, bring it on: we manufacture culture out here.
This is sour grapes, but it isn't just sour grapes. I had forgotten in the past twelve years or so just how much of America was real-deal evangelical. I'm of the Chris Hitchens school on this:
"I'm an atheist. I'm not neutral about religion, I'm hostile to it. I think it is a positively bad idea, not just a false one. And I mean not just organized religion, but religious belief itself."
Now I remember. Here's to the second Great Awakening, America!
Comments(0) |
I can live with a Bush win, especially if it seemed like his war on terror blah blah blah strategy was what clinched it. But it wasn't. I wrote something really intemperate this morning when I was still royally hung over, then deleted it. But Rove called it--playing to the base and going harder right, and energizing the evangelicals is what won the election. I'm living in a country where 20% of the electorate said that "morality" was a more important issue to them than the war on terror. And six states just passed constitutional amendments that explicitly deny gay couples any sort of common-law or civil union rights. That's well beyond protecting marriage. And that issue was enough to get those people to the polls. That's really fucking depressing. If that's the level of political discourse in America, if that's the winning strategy, I don't want any part of it.
If the red states want a moral theocracy, I say let them have it. Let that whole part of the country go to heaven in a rowboat. Just leave me the fuck alone. Bill Bennet is already saying Bush has a mandate for a culture war; I think he's probably right. Well, bring it on: we manufacture culture out here.
This is sour grapes, but it isn't just sour grapes. I had forgotten in the past twelve years or so just how much of America was real-deal evangelical. I'm of the Chris Hitchens school on this:
"I'm an atheist. I'm not neutral about religion, I'm hostile to it. I think it is a positively bad idea, not just a false one. And I mean not just organized religion, but religious belief itself."
Now I remember. Here's to the second Great Awakening, America!
Comments(0) |
