Category: Old Dish

Another must-read on the most poisonous intellectual in America.

“Have to disagree with David Brooks and evidently you. To point out that the evangelicals voted in the same proportion for Bush as they did in 2000 gets a fact right and misses the point. What matters is that the Bush vote by these folks did not erode in the face of catastrophic management of post-invasion Iraq, prisoner atrocities, transformation of the surplus into a suffocating deficit and terrible job performance. It seems to me that their religious views trump everything. You switched your vote – why didn’t they? The answer is complex, but you can bet it includes homophobia deftly catalyzed by Mr. Rove et. al.” He’s got a point, no?

Well, that’s an exaggeration. Nevertheless:

[T]he biggest improvement in Bush’s performance actually came from those who never go to church. He won 36% of this group compared to 29% last time.

Steve Waldman has more.

His attack on the instant post-vote conventional wisdom (which I originally shared) about “moral values” and this election will soon become the new conventional wisdom. It also has the added benefit of being right.

Thanks so much for the hundreds of emails after my appearance on Bill Maher’s “Real Time.” For those of you who wondered why I had such a visceral response to Noam Chomsky’s diatribe, or who are not fully aware of who Chomsky is and what he represents, check out this review-essay, and this posting.

I wonder how significant a development this is? According to the Washington Post,

As Marines step up preparations for military offensives on two major Iraqi cities, a number of Sunni Muslim leaders are forwarding a plan to establish the rule of law in those areas through peaceful means, with the promise of reducing the insurgency across a large swath of the country. Some of the groups leading the bid have encouraged violent resistance in central, western and northern Iraq. The groups say they will withdraw their support for violence if Iraq’s interim government can reassure Sunni leaders wary of national elections, which are scheduled for the end of January.

If this pans out, it would be an enormous breakthrough. Re-taking a Falluja is an essential task for Iraq’s transition, and it should be done by military means if necessary – but defeating the insurgency also needs a political arm. Far, far better for the Sunni elites to turn on the terrorists and extremists than for the U.S. to have to bear that political burden. I must say this is by far the best news in a very long time – and I wonder whether it emerged because of Bush’s decisive re-election. The Post story said the offer had been made “last week,” although such a shift must have been in the works long beforehand. The imminence of the attack on Fallujah must have been the key precipitant, but I wonder if November 2 sealed the deal. If it did, it’s a retroactive endorsement of the pro-Bush pro-war camp’s position. I hope I get to eat my words about the danger of recent developments in Iraq. I really do.

Isn’t it amazing that this mob boss will actually die in his sleep in a hospital bed? How many mafia bosses get to do that? Only the truly brutal ones. With the passing of this murderer, some hope begins to emerge in the Middle East.

A MORE CONVINCING EXIT POLL: Here’s a PDF for the L.A. Times’ exit poll. It shows only 17 percent of gays voted for Bush, with 81 percent for Kerry. That makes more sense to me.

I have to say that the more you look at the data, the less convincing it is that Bush won based on a religious right, anti-gay swing. Glenn has more details. One other thing: there were three swing states in which anti-marriage amendments were on the ballot. In Michigan and Oregon, the bans on gay unions passed, and Kerry still won. Ohio was the exception. If the GOP decides that the lesson of all this is to press on and make anti-gay amendments their signature issue, they will over-play their hand. Especially on the federal level. After all, isn’t the logic of state amendments a federalist one? Let each state decide. Don’t nationalize this issue one way or the other.

The assault on Falluja is about to begin. It’s worth putting aside all our divisions at this point in praying that our forces succeed with the minimum of civilian casualties.

In Canada, yet another jurisdiction grants equality to homosexual citizens. It’s all but the entire country now. Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, the legislature tilted critically toward marriage equality.