What Does America Mean To You?

I'm not opening up any new ground here. How often does any one do that? It seems like a good thing to write about with elections just a week away. So here goes.

The Republicans are now in a place. They are desperately trying to redefine themselves in terms that will give a greater number of people the opportunity to side with them against what they see as the forces of liberalism currently controlling the Democratic Party, whatever those forces might be.

The Republicans already have a base of support and it's important, no matter what they do or say otherwise, to keep that base of support firmly on their side and motivated to vote in large percentages. If they can't do that, they can't accomplish anything.

This Republican base sees itself as Conservative but what do they really mean by that? It means to them that they primarily value what they see as traditional American values and morals. The first and foremost way that they define these values is as Christian. They believe that America is a Christian nation. They believe that there should be a separation of Church and State but that in many ways it is unnecessary because they believe that most Americans are also Christian, like them and so bound to believe as they do. They see the most important protection within society as the right to life. The most important step toward a right to life is the abolition of any legal abortion. It goes beyond this though. They believe that White American society must be encouraged to the greatest extent possible to reproduce, multiply and aculturate their numbers or else it will be buried under what they see as alien intruders in the land. The next thing that they revere is the preservation of traditional marriage between one man and one woman. They believe that any factions that seek to break down traditional marriage do so with the express purpose of breaking down Christian American society and damaging its ability to thrive and multiply its numbers. These Conservatives believe that anybody that practices a mode of life that is not Christian, is a threat and internal enemy of the State. This includes people of any other religion, especially Islam, those who do not profess a willingness to practice heterosexuality and people that have no qualms about admitting in public that they have no religion. This then, is the Republicans Conservative base, that they must satisfy at all costs, if they want to win any elections now or in the foreseeable future. They have no choice but to give up the support of some other groups, if alliance with them damages their support by the base.

By all accounts, Democrats are not enthusiastic about voting next week. Turnout among them will be low. Enthusiasm is even lower among independents. Possibly as few as the 20-30% range of registered voters will turn out. With their small but energized Conservative base, the Republicans are likely to do quite well. They deserve to. That's the way the system is designed.

I hope you can see that I can never support the Republicans as long as their primary support comes from their traditionalist, Christian, Conservative, base.

Society rolls along. It bends, flexes and changes. A week from Tuesday it will do some more of that. It's OK with me. Nothing much will change in my neighborhood and it's a pretty nice place. I'm a lucky guy. I always was and it seems to be holding. Good for me.

Roll on, Big River.