For a while I thought his gay-friendliness and . . . uhm . . . disdain for the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned, would be enough to kill his candidacy by primary time.
Then I thought that, even though he wasn't precisely what the Republican base wanted, they'd vote for him rather than risk losing the White House to a Democrat.
Digby has convinced me I've missed the boat. Rudy's not what they'll settle for; he's exactly what they've wanted continuously for over a quarter-century:
[T]he GOP is ready to vote for "a hero," but I don't think it signals any kind of substantive change in the GOP. The "values" obsession was just the code of the times for the standard Southern Strategy of white male prerogatives and macho ass-kicking that the Republicans have been running on for 40 years. They are just once more re-packaging their tired old crap in patriotism instead of the Bible, (which they often cycle with "states rights" and "traditional values" among other things.)
Nothing has changed. The Republicans are actually just being more honest than they've been in recent years when they didn't have a boogeyman to beat liberals over the head with and needed to erase the hideous image of that nasty man Newt Gingrich as the face of the Republican Party. "Values" was always just the girly-man version of "Giuliani Time."
The modern Republican party is all about authoritarianism, militarism and domination over minorities, women and gays. Rudy is a perfect candidate. After all, there is no candidate in the race who has humiliated women more masterfully or condoned official violence against racial minorities with more fervor. Of course the South Carolina Republicans love him.
And this is why Democrats should stop running their campaigns based upon whatever stupid bumper sticker the GOP comes up every few years with and figure out how to beat them at the basic game they are playing.
Read the whole thing. It's going onto the Reading list on the sidebar.
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