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Remember when Republicans liked to tout states' rights and claimed to be against using federal laws and even constitutional amendments to further Taliban-esque activities? It wasn't so terribly long ago.
"I think different states are likely to come to different conclusions [regarding gay rights and gay marriage], and that's appropriate. I don't think there should necessarily be a federal policy in this area. ... People should be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to enter into. It's really no one else's business, in terms of trying to regulate or prohibit behavior in that regard." --Dick Cheney, October 2000
Boy, have things changed.
An amendment to the Constitution is necessary because activist courts have left our nation with no other choice. The constitutional amendment that the Senate will consider next week would fully protect marriage from being redefined, while leaving state legislatures free to make their own choices in defining legal arrangements other than marriage." -- George Bush, June 2006
They're all for states' right when it suits them, but not when it doesn't. Just as they have no problem whatsoever with activist judges, as long as those judges are making decisions they agree with.
The above quotes demonstrate quite clearly the difference between the two arms of the current Republican Party. There's the American Taliban arm that cares only about cultural issues and making American citizens toe their behavioral line, and then there's the Corporatist arm that cares only about the rights of the corporation over the individual and widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots in this country. Very few Republicans are sincerely in both camps.
Dubya would have us believe he is, though I doubt his sincerity -- remember that moment in Farenheit 9/11 when Dubya was speaking to a well-heeled group of wealthy supporters at a fundraiser? He spoke the following words: "What an impressive crowd: the haves, and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite; I call you my base."
Those were the truest words Dubya has ever spoken in public. He gives lip service to social issues, but he's really all about keeping the power in the hands of the American "aristocracy."
The Corporatists like to get the American Taliban riled them up over social issues -- hence the current shameful focus on an amendment banning gay marriage that they know can't pass -- so that they can continue to count on their votes to help them retain power and continue their crusade against the American middle and lower classes. But have you noticed how little of the American Taliban's agenda the Corporatists really endeavor to enact? Very little. They're playing them like a dime-store banjo, and the American Taliban has yet to catch on.
Posted by brett at 04:54 PM | TrackBack