And Now, Secondary Virginity

When you're really stuck because your stuff isn't working you set up a do-over. Surely you remember this as a kid, three strikes and I'm not out because I suck - worked well then, didn't it. Grover Norquist (are you surprised) brought this one to the table at the secretive Council for National Policy where the Christian Right was struggling to find a candidate. Their problem is that all the available ones had unsatisfactory stands when they ran previously and needed moderate voters. Apparently nobody has the Right stuff without Grover's "Secondary Virginity," where a high schooler gets to be be a virgin again if they say, "oops." I guess that since I had no desire to retain my virginity in high school I find this idea odd.

Here's the deal in basic terms, the candidate gets to say, "I like to screw," when it's in their benefit, when it's not, "I don't like to screw and you don't get to, either." Now in order to perform these kinds of gymnastics there must be something driving it, Paul Wyerich, Chairman of the Free Congress Foundation put it this way, “There is great anxiety, there is no outstanding conservative, and they are all looking for that.” If the candidates didn't speak for pro-choice or gay tolerance they violated other terms of the deal, like raised taxes, supported BushCo immigration amnesty, opposed the Plutocratic Freetrade, or just don't have any money. These people's problem is that they cannot count. They hang around each other in their tight little club and think they are a voting power bloc. Yes, they can raise money and yes for some reason the media caters to to them, but that's not votes.

I'm a left wing Democrat, I have no hope that the registered Democrats and Independents are going to go for my stuff whole cloth, but I can have hopes of pushing them towards my point of view if I am reasonable and persuasive. I also can look at things from a wider perspective than a narrow one size fits all dicta. The thing that works against these folks is their idea that their correct view must apply to all of us, their "morality" is exactly right in all cases. "Sacred" books have their problems in the real world and these people just cannot see it.

Their greatest fear is that the Republicans are going to go their own way, in fact James Dobson has made a point of mentioning that he voted third party rather than pull a lever for Bob Dole. I wish them much luck with threatening the Republicans, if they succeed they'll get their butts kicked most places and if they fail they will have alienated that Party. The Republicans may be headed for a small minority position until they learn the electoral lessons and if the Christian Right goes down the tubes, I won't much complain.