blumenthal link

[tmcg]

Sidney Blumenthal in The Guardian

Via cordwainer.



Added on edit, two chunks from the middle, lest the piece be archived beyond view in the future:

Using the White House as a machine of centripetal force, Rove spread fear and fused its elements. Fear of the besieging terrorist, appearing in Bush TV ads as the shifty eyes of a swarthy man or a pack of wolves, was joined with fear of the besieging queer. Bush's support for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage was underscored by referendums against it in 11 states - all of which won.

The evangelical churches became instruments of political organisation. Ideology was enforced as theology, turning nonconformity into sin, and the faithful, following voter guides with biblical literalism, were shepherded to the polls as though to the rapture. White Protestants, especially in the south, especially married men, gave their souls and votes for flag and cross. The campaign was one long revival. Abortion and stem cell research became a lever for prying loose white Catholics. To help in Florida, a referendum was put on the ballot to deny young women the right to abortion without parental approval and it galvanised evangelicals and conservative Catholics alike.

...

Brought along with Bush is a gallery of grotesques in the Senate: more than one new senator advocates capital punishment for abortion; another urges that all gay teachers be fired; yet another is suffering from obvious symptoms of Alzheimer's. The new majority is more theocratic than Republican, as Republican was previously understood; the defeat of the old moderate Republican party is far more decisive than the loss by the Democrats. There are no checks and balances.

Comments

[cordwainer.livejournal.com]

Here's Maureen Dowd
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/opinion/04dowd.html?hp

And the cover of the London Independent:
http://static.sky.com/images/pictures/1252218.jpg

You should also see the cover of the London Daily Mirror.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/frontpages/