What the Democrats don't seem to get, but perhaps, Howard Dean, in his own awkward way, does, is that the Republicans -- as low as they have sunk -- still have two cards they can play in November: a "major security issue" (pick your poison: the threat of another terror attack -- watch for the alert level to be "orange" by October... or a military strike on Iran...) and gay marriage. Bill Frist fired the first shot on the second gambit today. (Interestingly, the First Lady knows what's up, and she actually went out on a limb and fired back...)
Daily Kos Democrats will not want to hear this, but the plain fact is that as sick as Americans of all political stripes are of corrupt, incompetent Republican rule, they remain wary of what would be in store for the country if Democrats return to power -- or at least if a certain kind of Democrat returns to power (another reason why the party should have given more serious consideration to Harold Ford as House leader instead of Nancy Pelosi). I spoke with a prominent pastor of a megachurch here in South Florida on Friday, who calls himself a "personal friend of President Bush," and whose congregation -- mostly African-American, as he is -- lean heavily Republican. He boiled the issue down plainly: the Democratic platform is anti-Biblical, on issues from abortion to affirmative action (the Bible, he says, says no man should be preferred over another) to gay marriage, and that Republicans must remain in power in order to stop the slide of American culture into the sewer of secular humanism.
Karl Rove and company know how this game is played. The Democrats are going to have to figure out a way to deal with this. They could start by not pushing for the liberalization of marriage in the kind of very public, hard-charging way some activists are demanding. Otherwise, they risk snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in November. They also need to recognize that the majority of Americans are far more conservative on social issues than left wing bloggers are, for instance. And far more religious.
Again, not something lefties are going to want to hear, but it's the truth.
<%
dim done
done = request.form("done")
if done = "" then
done = "No"
%>
Tell a friend
<%
Else
if request.form("done") = "Yes" then
'sets variables
dim email, sendmail
email = request.form("email")
Set sendmail = Server.CreateObject("CDONTS.NewMail")
'put the webmaster address here
sendmail.From = "webmaster@aspbasics.com"
'The mail is sent to the address entered in the previous page.
sendmail.To = email
'Enter the subject of your mail here
sendmail.Subject = "Check out this website"
'send a specific page or send a site url
dim url
'url = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
url = "http://www.aspbasics.net"
'This is the content of the message.
sendmail.Body = "Site recommendation from a friend!" & _
vbCrlf & vbCrlf & "A friend has sent you this email and thought you would should check out this site." & _
vbCrlf & url & vbCrlf
'this sets mail priority.... 0=low 1=normal 2=high
sendmail.Importance = 1
sendmail.Send 'Send the email!
response.redirect Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
'Response.write ("Sent to ") & email
End if
End if
%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
