As I contemplated Bachmann's strong showing in the Iowa Meth Poll drives out T-Paw, an intriguing possibility occurred to me: We might see a bizarre revisiting of the toxic dynamic between Hillary and Obama supporters but on the GOP side this time. More after the jump. . .
I apologize if others have already diaried on this--I didn't see anything when I checked. In any case, it seems pretty clear that Bachmann is here to stay for the rest of the GOP Circus. While her election would be an apocalypse in the secular version of the Dominionist sense of the word, I still have faith that that is simply impossible. So I think her presence helps us, not only because it shows how radical and reality-challenged the GOP has become. I also think it might trigger an ugly pie-fight within the Republican party that will be akin in some ways to the Obama-Hillary contest, refracted through the Bizarro World partriarchy of the GOP (not that sexism was absent from the Obama-Hillary fight!).
What I'm imagining is some Bachmann supporters beginning to make this explicitly about gender, trying to co-op feminist arguments but, because their own positions make this a no-go, having to garb it in various sorts of code, perhaps tied to her role as Supermom of 23 kids who "submits" to her husband (that just means she respects him, remember). Then there will be all the awkward attempts at push-back from Perry, and perhaps Mittens, and, no doubt, the unwitting chauvinism of how they treat her. For our side, this is much better than the poisonous discourse around Palin in '08, since that was something that the Right could try to use as a tool against us--she only appeared once the general election was on.
Of course, the whole spectacle, if my gut is right on this, will be depressing from one view, since it will reveal just how many of our fellow Americans are mired in sexist worldviews, and what sway they continue to have over our political system and society at large. And I imagine there will be attacks on Bachmann from those beyond the GOP that will be unjustly motivated by misogyny. Still and all, I think it will also ultimately help those arrayed against these dark forces by exposing the GOP for what it is and by forcing them to expend energy and money in an expensive and damaging fight.
What do you all think?