Whatever It Takes

Well here we go again, yet another Republican politician resorting to dirty panic politics to save his political career. The poll numbers start sinking so it’s time to reach out to the base (I’m using restraint here) and appeal to their bigotry and ignorance to get the ol numbers back up again… It’s the same old tired trick the GOP pulls every time things get tight. This time it is Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio. His lead against Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in the upcoming 2006 Senate race is shrinking so according to the Columbus Dispatch:

he will take a lead role in pushing for a U.S. constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, at least in part to regain support from unhappy conservatives in his state.

He realizes that he will

need a heavy turnout from conservatives, many of whom are unhappy with him on issues of same-sex marriage and curbing immigration.

It looks like he is going to have a close race with Sherrod Brown. It makes a lot of sense politically for him to want to solidify that (conservative) base and this is one way to do it," said John Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron and an expert on religion and politics.

I just wish people would wake up and recognize that any politician that can so easily throw a whole group of people under the bus in a desperate attempt to save his or her own career is truly unfit to hold office. And those who fall for this divisive trick hook, line, and sinker need to ask themselves why they think they are safe from ever being singled out and deemed expendable.

And one more observation. It seems that every article I read lately that describes the GOP base as unhappy then goes on to describe what would make that base deliriously happy and the solution always seems to be marginalizing a specific group of people. I just cannot wrap my mind around the idea that there are people whose contentment with a politician is contingent on how willing that politician is to deny a whole group of people rights that everyone else is guaranteed under our constitution. Why is it that the unhappy conservative base cannot be happy until they know that others’ unhappiness is enshrined into the law of the land? I just don’t get it. This is not about values, this is about cruelty and ignorance.