The loonies have taken control
November 5, 2004

Bush's "morals" victory means imposing evangelical intolerance on everybody else, writes Maureen Dowd.

With the US Democratic Party splattered at his feet in little blue puddles, John Kerry told the crushed crowd at Faneuil Hall in Boston about his concession call to President Bush.

"We had a good conversation," the senator said. "And we talked about the danger of division in our country and the need, the desperate need, for unity, for finding the common ground, coming together. Today I hope that we can begin the healing."

Democrat: Heal thyself.

W. doesn't see division as a danger. The President got re-elected by dividing his country along fault lines of fear, intolerance, ignorance and religious rule. He doesn't want to heal rifts; he wants to bring any riff-raff who disagree to heel.

W. ran a jihad in America so he can fight one in Iraq - drawing a devoted flock of evangelicals, or "values voters", as they call themselves, to the polls by opposing abortion, suffocating stem cell research and supporting a constitutional amendment against gay marriage.

Bush, whose Administration drummed up fake evidence to trick Americans into war with Iraq, putting US troops in an immoral position with no exit strategy, won on "moral issues".

The President says he is "humbled" and wants to reach out to the whole country. What humbug. The Bushes are always gracious until they don't get their way. If W. didn't reach out after the last election, which he barely grabbed, why would he reach out now that he has what Dick Cheney calls a "broad, nationwide victory"?

While Bush was making his little speech about reaching out, Republicans said they had "the green light" to pursue their conservative agenda, like drilling in Alaska's wilderness and rewriting the tax code.

Only Dick Cheney can make "to serve and to guard" sound like "to rape and to pillage".
"He'll be a lot more aggressive in Iraq now," one Bush insider predicts. "He'll raze Fallujah if he has to. He feels that the election results endorsed his version of the war." Never mind that the more insurgents US troops kill, the more they create.

Just listen to Dick (Oh, lordy, is this cuckoo clock still Vice-President?) Cheney, introducing The Man for his victory speech: "This has been a consequential presidency which has revitalised our economy and reasserted a confident American role in the world." Well, it has revitalised the Halliburton segment of the economy, anyhow. And "confident" is not the first word that comes to mind for the foreign policy of a country that has alienated everyone except Fiji.

Vice continued: "Now we move forward to serve and to guard the country we love." Only Dick Cheney can make "to serve and to guard" sound like "to rape and to pillage".

He's creating the sort of "democracy" he likes. One party controls all power in the country. One network serves as state TV. One nation dominates the world as a hyperpower. One firm controls contracts in Iraq.

Several new members of Congress are so over the top they will make W. seem moderate.

Tom Coburn, the new senator from Oklahoma, advocated the death penalty for doctors who perform abortions and warned that "the gay agenda" would undermine the United States. He also characterised his race as a choice between "good and evil" and said he had heard there was "rampant lesbianism" in Oklahoma schools.

James DeMint, the new senator from South Carolina, said during his campaign that he supported a state Republican platform plank banning gays from teaching in schools. He explained: "I would have given the same answer when asked if a single woman who was pregnant and living with her boyfriend should be hired to teach my third-grade children."

John Thune is an anti-abortion Christian conservative - or "servant leader", as he was hailed in a campaign ad - who supports constitutional amendments banning flag burning and gay marriage.

Even the Democrats in recent days started talking about values and religion. Their sudden passion for wooing Southern white Christian soldiers may put a crimp in Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign (nothing but a wooden stake would stop it).

Meanwhile, the blue puddle is comforting itself with the expectation that this loony bunch will fatally overreach, as Newt Gingrich did in the '90s.

But with this crowd, it's hard to imagine what would constitute overreaching.

Invading France?

Maureen Dowd is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist with The New York Times.


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Today's CCNWON Headlines:


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5 November 2004
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November headlines:


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