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. Election Boils Down to a Culture War:
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 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. |
- Re: [Futurework] Jihad 2004 Karen Watters Cole
- Re: [Futurework] Jihad 2004 wbward