I know some Dem Senators and Reps and staffers read this blog, so please, a request from a number of readers to some of you in the democratic orthodoxy: Stop. Please, stop. Just stop worrying about what crazy wingnuts think or how they vote. Outside of helpful suggestions as to what exactly I should write and exactly how I should write it, this is the most common complaint cluttering up my in-box and one several readers have asked me to pass onto you.
So just stop. Please. Most of us are voting for you, working for you, or forking over our hard earned bread to your campaigns, because you're not crazy. Don't you get that? Trying to pose as crazy won't help you with people like us, and it sure as hell won't get you any cred with the crazed. In fact, why would you want to be in the good graces of a crazed minority anyway?
There's maybe a tenth of the population that's under a spell, they're essentially in a cult, and you'll never get their vote, you'll never infiltrate that cult. Appealing to their critical thinking faculties won't work, they don't have any. They're impervious to reason, no matter how simple, no matter how geometrically rigid. You could argue using one irrefutable tautology after another, you can go after violent video games or talk tough on abortion or war. These people will see little red demons flying around your head the whole time and not hear a word you say. There's a subset of those who would like to see you tried for all manner of perceived grievances and hung by the neck until dead or shot right between the eyes by a firing squad.
Make no mistake: we're not talking about people with a 'differing world view', they aren't 'representative of a novel mindset': A lot of pragmatic conservatives have told me off the record they've had it with the neocons and the social cons. Many Christians were never on board to begin with, and even some in the right-wing religious set, the ones with a conscience and half a brain, now realize they were played.
What's left? Paid shills, corporate whores, clueless uninformed empty heads, and, mostly, people who are for all practical purposes crazy. The irrational, demented, deluded: those not of sound mind. And some of their leaders are even crazier than they are. The neo-GOP and the conservative punditacracy has devolved into a ruthless competition for a contracting market of the increasingly unhinged. To attract and maintain the crazy audience, the extreme right-wing pundits and politicos have to out crazy each other constantly. Sorta like "You think YOU'RE crazy? I'm CRAZIER than a shit house rat! Read me, watch me, vote for me, woohooo, buy my crazy book full of crazy shit ... I'm telling you I'm Tee-totally fucking Craaaaaazzzzy!"
As far as passing yourself off as one of the crazies, good luck; they're like pod-people. They know their own and let out a screeching wail en masse whenever one of you tries to move amongst them. But more importantly for all concerned, just trying to understand them might make you almost as crazy as they are, which won't do anyone any good, and it won't win an election. I think you're kidding yourselves if you think you can fish around in that muck for votes: The GOP has the crazy vote locked up. Or rather, the crazy vote has the GOP locked up.
Just how far off the chart are some of these nutjobs in the cult of Bush? I bet the President could show up at a presser in full rooster costume, from feathered cap, crown, and crest, down to the yellow, clawed feet, and talk like Foghorn Leghorn, and pundits/bloggers--a few of them closet furries I'm sure--would praise it as a bold, visionary move to reach across diverse cultural and trans-species boundaries. His base would 1) mysteriously compartmentalize the image and sound of Bush standing in his barn-yard rooster outfit saying "Boy! I say BOY!" somewhere safe in what passes for a brain where it couldn't interact with normal thoughts, or 2) they'd rationalize it in some way that defies critical analysis, or 3) Praise his down to earth sense of humor; all in seconds flat. As long as it wasn't linked to sex, or had anything to do with embryos, I really think Bush would be safe with his base: Even in full-on Foghorn attire and speech. That's how crazy some of these people are.
The nutcases are useful, for sure. But not as voters for you, more like an anti-commercial for the GOP. See, when they're out of power, well, then these nutburgers are just funny as hell. But when they have their hands and fingers on the nukes and the money, they scare the shit out of everyone.
So use them to your advantage. Get a few totally crazy conservative wannabees up there on national TV saying crazy shit about blastocysts and birth control, and people watching will get worried. You maybe get a crazy neo-fundie leader talking about how and why to build a menstrual shed, or how to bring on the rapture with a little nuclear 'assist', and you'll have appalled viewers racing for the polls in horror. In short, please. Stop. Stop trying to run for office as one of the crazed mob, you'll never win that way. Besides, their agenda is repugnant to the rest of us, the majority of us. Run against them and it'll be a walk, run as one and it might be another massacre.