You know it isn’t very often that I find something compelling enough to make a second post of the day. But here we are.
As you are doubtlessly aware, the 2006 elections will be here in a few weeks for those of us who live in the United States. Issues you, Dear Voter, will have to decide upon include every member of the House of Representatives, a slate of state officials, a bevy of ballot initiatives, a locust swarm of local officials, and maybe even an amendment or two to the State Constitution. Your mileage will vary by jurisdiction.
Controversy on voting machines aside, the Republican party is concerned about what will happen next month. They are “focus[ing] on best bets” and trying to convince us that low taxes are the answer to all our problems (again) Allow me to gloss over the deficit and that the lions share of tax cuts have gone to people who don’t need them.
Why the sudden backtracking? Because the so-called “Values Voters” have become disenchanted with the Republican Party. Nor is the problem just a Foley Backlash:
While such issues [as gay marriage and abortion] motivated the Republicans’ social-conservative base in the past, they are overshadowed in this year’s congressional election campaign by concerns about the Iraq war, the economy and national security, according to opinion polls and political strategists. “Poverty, the wealth gap, health care — people can’t afford Medicare. Something’s got to be done about that,” Sue Harrell, a school teacher in Monroe City, Indiana, said recently.She said “Christian values” were important in previous votes but her top issues now are education and the prevalence of methamphetamine abuse and poverty in Knox County, Indiana.
Such talk has Republicans nervous and Democrats scenting opportunities to recapture the House of Representatives after 12 years in the minority, as well as reduce the Republican advantage in the Senate.
More to the point, perhaps it turns out that doing the right things on poverty, the wealth gap, health care, education, the War in Babylon, and drug abuse are “Christian values.”
In closing: goodbye, Cheyenne Mountain; East is the New West as American kids learn Mandarin; and the upcoming 3 Branches of Government Showdown on suspected terrorists and their (lack of) rights.
I must agree with the teacher… and yet in a republic can there ever be any recourse for the poor in the struggle to close the “wealth gap?”
( there seems to be another comment attached to the end of her quote…( the author of the article which included the interview with the teacher? who is the guy who used “scent” as a verb?)
Well it turns out I accidentally skipped an important link, and pasted the CSM article twice! I have since corrected. The author who used “scent” as a verb is Joanne Kenen, and the article in question is here.