Rick Santorum thinks gay marriage is an important election issue for Americans
Raw Story acquires 91-page Republican playbook for ‘homestretch’ campaigning
109th Congress: Securing America’s Future (PDF file)
Next week, Republicans will tout efforts to “secure America’s prosperity” through a variety of programs. Plans for small business health insurance pooling, spending reductions, increased domestic oil drilling, and “permanent death tax reform” are all to be pushed at the state level. Mid-month, Republicans are expected to shift gears, focusing voter’s attention instead on a variety of values-based initiatives. “Democrats oppose preserving a clear definition of marriage, are blocking child custody protections, and have obstructed the confirmation of fair judges,” the document reads. “Republicans are committed to protecting these traditional values by fostering a culture of life, protecting children, banning internet gambling and upholding the rule of law.”
It’s truly interesting what Sens. Rick Santorum (R-13th Century) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Pleasantville) seem to think are truly of primary importance to this country. While you and I might think of the war in Iraq, Social Security, health care, the economy, and finding Osama bin-Laden as among the key issues facing this country, Republicans are taking a different tack. Of course, the mid-term elections are less than three months off, and if you’re a Republican, you’re all about winning…and you’re desperate. This means that you’ll do ANYTHING to ensure victory. Republicans aren’t going to be able to win in November by focusing on the issues outlined above. They’ve already thoroughly screwed the pooch on those, and they certainly don’t wan’t that reality planted in the minds of voters. No, desperate times call for desperate typically Republican measures.
No, what Republicans are going to focus on are pseudo-issues like gay marriage, the estate tax, “activist” judges, “fostering a culture of life”, banning internet gambling, “protecting children”, and “upholding the rule of law”. If those sound like moving targets, it’s because they are. By selecting and focusing on issues that have high inherent emotional value and little in the way of specificity, Republicans are hoping to piss voters off and then focus that anger against Godless, Gay-loving, bleeding heart, America-hating Liberal Democrats. What they want to do is to reduce their Democratic adversaries to evil, hateful caricatures in the minds of voters. That this propaganda is sheer manipulation and does nothing to solve or even address ANY of the problems facing this country are completely beside the point. This is about winning, pure and simple…and at the end of the day, that’s all Republicans truly care about.
