Trading Pawns

As we stare the latest Conservative catastrophe in the face, it is helpful to remember that, in practical, WYSIWYG terms, the key difference between Liberals and Conservatives is actually very simple:

The further Liberals stray from their core values – inclusive/democratic, social justice, fair trade, decent wages, excellent public education, religious tolerance, national health care, respectful diplomacy-first foreign policy, clean, sustainable energy, free and aggressive press, and caring for the environment -- the worse things get.

The closer Conservatives adhere to their core values – hierarchical/authoritarian, corporate feudalism, welfare for plutocrats, religious intolerance, drill-baby-drill, propaganda-as-news, imperial foreign policy, and fuck the future -- the worse things get.

Based on any objective calculus, the GOP should have been being flogged into the political wilderness for the next generation years ago.

The reason they haven't -- that "solid ring of diamond-hard stupid" that firewalls them against the getting what they deserve good and hard -- is their Base, which they understand to down to their constituent atoms. They know them street-by-street, district-by-district, and know exactly which buttons to push and nightmares to invoke to make them sit up and bark like trained seals. And they know we know. And we know they know we know. (h/t “Lion in Winter”).

So both sides are perfectly aware that every single lying, reckless, ratfucking tactic the Bush/McSame campaign has rolled out since they knew they’d be running against Barack Hussein Obama been based on a simple calculus: Does doing “X” scrape more hard right-wing conservatards off the bottom of the cultural honey bucket than it alienates Independents?

They’re trading pawns.

And the question that will be decided November 4th is whether or not it will work.