• Mood: contemplative
• Music: Azumanga Daioh OST - Fancy Hearing Cake

Oversimplification

In view of the agonizing reappraisal a lot of my DFL acquaintances are going through after the election, may I suggest that some of you are jumping to conclusions? The "moral values" response in the exit polls (which we should all be viewing with great suspicion, imao) has been linked with the gay marriage initiatives to form a meme that it's all about the gay, to paraphrase Margaret Cho's mom. Those of you coming to that conclusion ought to take a look at this and think about it some. Correlation !=causation, and I'm afraid a lot of well-meaning DFLers are jumping to conclusions about the moral issues and how they played out in motivating blacks and Hispanics to vote for W and the GOP this year.

I'd also like to recommend this essay, which has some things in common with what 433 said in his post but also covers issues 433 didn't.

Meanwhile, intellectualoids like Jane Smiley need to be ignored like the thimblewits they are, and that includes that gomer Garrison Keillor. He used to be funny back when he wasn't choking on his own bile, but that was a couple of elections ago. I can't stand to listen to him any more, and I really enjoyed his Lake Wobegon books back in the day...and once you understand why people like me consider him an object of mockery and not a humorist you'll be a little closer to understanding your political enemies.

Why am I suggesting these things? Because a swing district is more fun than a safe one. Because having good opposition makes for progress through hard work and creative thinking. Because I don't want to see the Reagan Revolution get weak and sclerotic because you people have devolved into a bunch of pouty, name-calling neo-Leninists. Dynamic tension is more than just a line from Rocky Horror, you know.

Most links shamelessly stolen from Professor Death except for the link to Jeremy's essay, gacked from michaellee.