A note to wingers: You're not helping us

I'm going to disappoint everyone here and not taunt anybody. Yes. That's right. I won't taunt anybody. I'm not going to taunt anybody because it was a great election on both sides. Brown and Walls fought hard and kept it close to a sliver of just 175,000 votes. They did far better than they, or anyone, ever expected. Your wildest dreams will come true if you just work hard and never give up.

I know, Zorn, 'Big' Ben Joravsky, and Ray Hanania are all out right now celebrating as we speak @ the bar in the mall parking lot in Orland Park. For today, they have sent a message: That they and all Chicagoans, will not tolerate the Mayor's skulduggery. Enjoy your victory, for I shall not taunt today.

Instead I want to talk about Paul Richardson and why he hates the unborn by correctly assessing that the stem cell research resistance is positively futile and ultimately pointless - unless of course your point is to further emotionally exhaust the ILGOP base in Illinois. I thought the post was nicely punctuated with this:

Drifting further to the ideological right on a social issue that runs counter the vast majority of Illinoisans, is against the national tide, and has a pragmatic “out” to appease most moderate conservatives.

The state GOP can't afford to stay on the wrong side of this one.

If you really look at the Illinois GOP and you say to yourself: Here's a vital, fully functional, and healthy political organization, than you can go ahead and talk about stem cell research and HPV vaccines all day and all night. I mean, all 8 of you can sit back and marvel at the efficiency of the party, gawk at just what a credible threat we are anywhere in the state ballot and just yuck it up over the fake issues.

And oh yes. Yes they are. One of the cringer comments was, unfortunately, the good Dr. Baar's, as I generally respect him - though I don't always agree with him. It was a cringer because I really didn't think he'd fall for this one:

It shouldn't and isn't a partisan issue. Look at Cong Lipinski's position. Some Democrats try and pretend it is and use it as a club against the GOP as a party dominated by the religious right.

Ok. Reverse it. Change the polarization. Actually, near as I can tell the stem cell research faux 'controversy' really only made it's mark into the national discussion 'round abouts Bush Era. Maybe I'm wrong here. Wait, I'm not. The real steam here wasn't generated until 2001. And, in the midst of the social conservative revitalization, it's not hard to read between the lines. Wingers, on either side of the aisle, aren't very bright. Tell our wingers that somehow, doing research and destroying a cell that could one day be human life, should generate the same kind of outrage that abortion does, make it a partisan issue with "See? More democrat baby killing", and your wingers will be out in force. It'll make great news for your infotainers. Get'em all angry and out to the voting booths. All that, to essentially maintain the Clinton setstatus quo.

And the issue has lost whatever steam it once had. I'm sure it's good for a quick gag every now and again, but it doesn't have the fire power it once had when early Bush era high was in full force. The worst thing is, it's the pro-lifers that should understand more than anybody why it's this is a loser issue. Pro-Lifers can be wingnuts (Note, I am not dismissing all pro-lifers as wingnuts. I am saying that there are pro-life wingnuts).

I feel like I have to teach them a lesson as to why they're losing on this one. What those wingnuts get is that their wingnuttery can be overlooked for the reason that they're seen mostly as just strident advocates for a victim who can't defend itself. See image:


The issue of stem cell research there is no tangible victim. You don't have anything to elicit people to your side. With no victim, you're just back to being ideological zealots, because you're defending this:


And the bad news is, your wingnuttery can't justified by victim advocacy. Just to make it worse, the other side has their victim to advocate for and it's infinitely more powerful than you're flow chart.



Face it: You're advocacy on this issue is a waste of time and you're hurting the party more than you already have. You've been tricked by the big man. The sooner you get over it and move beyond this and the other fake issues, the better off we are.



As a party we have neither the time, the resources, the emotional energy, nor the surplus of swing voters to play up to yet another national dead end issue on the local scale. It didn't work with Jimmy the Milkman in '06 and it isn't going to work in the future.