The tiny, vocal minority.

While I'm busy trying to secure my ejection from Conservadom - hopefully the deportation will be granted so I can officially separate myself from American Taliban occupied Wingnutistan and then finally my visa to western Moderatia will be approved. I will then be able to enjoy the benefits of hanging out with conservatives who 'read'....and for fun, at that.

The Times has a good kick in the teeth to social conservatives on the topic of stem cell research. I'll bold the money shot for you:

Social conservatives oppose stem cell research because it involves discarding embryos, but a clear majority of the public supports it, recognizing its dramatic potential for treating and curing juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer's and other diseases while noting that hundreds of embryos are destroyed by fertility clinics each year without comment. Lifting restrictions from researchers is a crucial step. So is ensuring this work continues into the future.

Illinois Review has anguished over the piece in a frame up that I wish I had thought of first:

Social conservatives, face it, you're irrelevant

Oh wait. I did.

I find it telling when a group of folks whom do everything they can to brand the other side of the debate as a 'tiny vocal minority', get exposed as a 'tiny, but vocal minority' themselves. I get a kick out of it.

Part of the methodology of the social conservative right is to play off as though they're a big deal, rather than admitting that they're merely a fractional tribe with little influence over real policy. As they become increasingly antiquated and public exposure of their irrelevance goes up, they have to fight that much harder to keep their sheep believing in them, often the tact used is to generate fake controversy using broad ranging wedge issues.

Occasionally, they'll torpedo a gov candidate or try to out a senator both of which done under the guise of 'Christian values' The acts themselves amount to metaphorical political blackmail - "Play our song, or don't play at all". This power, the only power at their disposal, is great for playing in the internal GOP workings, but should not be confused with the ability to actually change state wide policy a destinction which only leads to the conclusion that is it the responsibility of common sense conservatives to deal with them.

For conservatives like myself, who would rather see policy pragmatism over backwards Christianist ideological purity, it's important that we identify and isolate our So-Con right, which effectively amounts to little more than a micro noise machine - an apparatus or political puppet show, which heavily exaggerates their numbers and influence real GOP voters.

The only way we revive our dead party is by either surgically removing this apparatus in a way that does not cause any more damage to the party, or by reshaping it to work for us. The latter is unlikely. The former is a challenge.