I see that
cousin Ray is posting items reflecting the coming Cultural War in the US.
Here’s my contribution to the same
subject.
Newsweek’s
Fineman writes that Bush2 will not fire Lt. General Boykin, who has made
Christian Zionist inflammatory remarks about Islam, linking the war on terror
to a holy crusade against Satan, because it would undercut the Red state’s
voting base. There are too many in that base who agree with Boykin. Who knows? Maybe he was encouraged to be
outspoken. Leaving Boykin in
place for Nov 2004 reasons after the avalanche of disapproval he has generated
would be a very stupid thing to do in diplomatic and military terms, without
even mentioning the added risk of another terrorist attack on the homeland,
and troops and civilians overseas.
It would be
overly optimistic of BC 04 to plan on campaigning on strong economic recovery
by this Spring, so it appears that Rove has “cast his lot” with cultural
issues, of which the environment will be just a minor player. As polls indicate that seniors
are losing faith in the GOP for economic reasons linked to health care issues,
the real passion that will drive the GOP voters to the polls will be cultural
issues.
Even though
the partial-birth abortion vote will probably not survive a constitutional
challenge, and even if it doesn’t get into a legal channel before Nov 2004,
the issue has been elevated deliberately to enhance the coming theme of
Campaign 2004 as a cultural war to define America. “Partial birth” is a fringe issue
affecting very few medical procedures but has been capitalized into a major
theme for neoconservatives, just as with the issue of the estate tax. Likewise, the heated acrimony between
parties over Bush’s judicial nominees reflects the impetus to control the
cultural equations for the long term future. If you have seen any of the Justice
Janice Brown testimony so far, you can see how the ideologies will be
portrayed.
Also see CBS
editorial commentary, Bush Brothers become Big
Brother,
on two of
the privacy issues that will be on the big marquee in
2004.
The
culture war between the Red
and Blue Nations
has erupted again--big time--and will last until Election Day next year. Front
lines are all over, from the Senate to the Pentagon to Florida to the Virginia
suburbs where, at the Bush-Cheney '04 headquarters, they are blunt about the
shape of the battle. "The country's split 50-50 again," a top aide told me,
"just as it was in 2000." Translation: They can't win re-election by wooing
the (mostly coastal) Blue states, but only by firing up (mostly non-coastal)
Reds.
The
Abortion Issue
is skirmish No. One. The Republican, conservative pro-life (Red) forces have
succeeded not only in winning one for their side, but in dividing the
Democrats. When the Senate voted in favor of a ban on so-called "partial
birth" abortion, 17 Democrats joined the GOP in the 64-vote majority. Indeed,
the Senate's top Democratic leaders--Tom Daschle and Harry Reid--voted to ban
the procedure, as did two Democrats who had considered running for president
this year, Evan Bayh and Joe Biden.
Bayh
and Biden didn't enter the race for a number of reasons, but one of them was
abortion. Pro-choice forces have such a grip on the early stages of the
nominating process that, to run for the Democratic nomination, it would be
next to impossible to support the partial-birth ban. Indeed, Dick Gephardt and
Dennis Kucinich, past supporters of the ban, switched positions before
entering the race.
Whatever
else President George W. Bush does or doesn't do on cultural issues, his
willingness to sign this measure (vetoed twice by President Clinton) will make
him a hero in the Red State "base." In the old days, the one issue that united
the conservative heartland of the GOP was hatred of Communism. These
days, the unifying thread--merging evangelical Christians, conservative
Catholics and many Orthodox Jews--is opposition to abortion.
Among
the places the GOP will use the issue with special intensity are those where
Democratic senators voted for the "partial birth" ban. A good example is
Nevada (home of Harry Reid), which Al Gore lost narrowly to Bush, but where
the rapid growth of the Hispanic (Catholic) population gives the Republicans a
chance to solidify its conservative "pro life" message. The pro-life message is appealing not
only to conservative Catholics but to evangelical Christians and Orthodox Jews
who, in recent years (and with the encouragement of the GOP) have become
activists on what had been a Catholics-only issue.
Fear
of the latent power of that same coalition
is the logical explanation for why the Pentagon--and the president--have not
penalized Lt. Gen. William G. "Jerry" Boykin for his incendiary remarks. In a
series of recent speeches at evangelical Christian churches, the general,
recently appointed undersecretary of Defense for intelligence, depicted the
war on terrorism as a fight against a "spiritual enemy," and branded as
idolatrous the Muslim faith of a militia leader he fought against as a field
commander in Somalia in 1993.
The
remarks have caused a predictable firestorm in the Arab and Muslim press--and
generated a cascade of negative editorials in American newspapers, too. But
even though Bush distanced himself from Boykin's remarks on Wednesday,
a
top aide to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the general would not be
fired.
Why?
Well, Boykin was literally preaching to the choir. Many evangelical Christians
believe that the war on terrorism is a battle between good and evil, a battle
predicted in the Bible as a precursor to the End of Days and the Second
Coming. Even if they don't believe it in a strict scriptural sense, many
Christians--led by preachers such as Franklin Graham--see Islam as a
problematic faith, at best. Firing Boykin would, in these eyes, be seen as a
capitulation.
The
last thing Bush wants is to make a martyr of a man who depicts himself as a
Christian Soldier, marching off to war. If Boykin has to go, Bush's handlers
will arrange it to look like a mass
execution by the Washington mob,
a mob the president had no choice but to mollify. In other words, they'll pin
it on the Democrats.
By
the way: I take the White House's handling of Boykin to mean that Karl Rove's
game plan for 2004 doesn't include Michigan,
which has the nation's largest, most vibrant and political Arab-Muslim
community.
Brother
Jeb Lends A Hand
The
president isn't the only Bush working the Red State voters hard on cultural
issues. His brother is, too. In Florida, at Gov. Jeb Bush's urging, the
Legislature empowered him to order the resumption of tube feeding to a
severely brain-damaged woman named Terri Schiavo, who had been in a vegetative
state for 13 years. The governor sided against Schiavo's husband and with her
parents, who wanted her kept alive. More important, Bush sided with
anti-euthanasia
forces, who share many ties and sympathies with those who oppose abortion.
As
a family, the Bushes are making a political and moral statement: We are for
the sanctity of life, as the Catholic Church defines it, and against legal
powers that would extinguish it. (Except in the case of the death penalty,
which the church also opposes.)
If
it sounds like a Holy
War at home
it is, and the Bushes are hoping that red is the color not just of blood but
of victory.
©
2003 Newsweek, Inc.