Markos, I have tremendous respect for what you've accomplished with this site. Even when you make mistakes, I usually feel sure that your intentions are the best possible. This is still true even with this tactic.
I strongly disagree with your tactics in this case. And it's not because I've the good ol' XX chromosomes.
I disagree (1) because I think most Americans get the culture war issues. They understand that culture warriors like Santorum are uptight jerks who can't even begin to comprehend the sentiment "live and let live". I lived in Pennsylvania when Santorum lost his seat to Casey. Santorum was soundly beaten fair and square by people who had woken up to how crazy Ricky really is. And this was in a state where we joke that "you've got Philadelphia in the east, Pittsburgh in the west, and Alabama in the middle" (with apologies to AL Kossacks).
And (2), because the real fight right now is about the economic and industrial/commercial fate of this country. Mitt Romney and his cronies are the real enemy in this fight. I want to have that fight, Markos.
Admittedly I don't travel a lot, but when I do wander far afield and talk to people in Maryland (and elsewhere in the MidAtlantic states), I hear similar things: economic issues. This in a state that has managed to come through the last few years in reasonably decent shape.
I'll give you an example, with the note that I have had similar conversations with quite a lot of people. Since I'm sewing for a living these days, I can often be found in fabric stores, usually shaking my head over the quality, prices, and country of origin labels on bolts of fabric. Cotton is at a price, comparable to the value of money, not seen since the Civil War. There is one solid reason for this, and one rumored reason. First, there's a three-year drought in India that has severely restricted the amount of salable cotton in the commodities market. Second, the rumor mill has it that China is stockpiling as much cotton as they can, and that is adding to the inflated price. Quality and country of origin are linked in my mind -- I do not see the kind of high quality cottons that I did even just 12 years ago. And 95% of all bolt-end labels read "Made in China."
There are two things that seem obvious solutions, and they work together. And two other women in an Annapolis fabric store had this very conversation with me just this week: we used to grow our own cotton, in quantity, even after emancipation, and well into the late 20th century. It was high quality long-staple cotton, the kind that produces the better textiles. We used to have our own mills, but they have been largely shut down and those jobs shipped to China. There is no reason why we cannot grow our own cotton. There is no reason why we cannot spin, weave, and print our own fabrics.
Well, I take that last bit back. As a woman from Maine told me in the Cape May area a couple of weeks ago, when mills in Maine have been shuttered, the Chinese swoop in and buy all the machinery at fire sale prices and ship it out to China for their new factories. We don't have the power looms anymore.
But still. Looms are not that exotic, and someone somewhere still knows how a power loom is built and used. Electric spinners are available to home handspinners, and even 15 years ago, I saw ads for computerized looms for handweavers in the artists' magazines. We've made our own textiles in this country, along with a host of other goods, and there is no good reason why we cannot resume their production. We need jobs like this back in this country. Not everyone wants to go to college and sit at a desk. And I, like many others, am living proof that an excellent education is no guarantee that you won't have to earn your living through a skilled craft or trade.
This is but one example, Markos, of why this fight has to be against Romney and the plutocrats. These are the people who shipped out skilled and semi-skilled factory jobs, who pushed for the over-development of farm land for exurban planned communities, who keep us from having a national industrial policy that makes sense. These are the people who fought the unions and continue to stomp all over the few that remain. Mitt Romney is the candidate for and of the 1%, and they'll make sure he's on the ticket somewhere. Oh, yeah, they like Santorum, because he's the bright shiny object they use to distract the uninformed and bigoted from what they are really interested in doing -- strip-mining everything good from this country and its people for their selfish benefit. Think about this: Santorum and Romney on the same ticket, like Shrub and Dead-eye Dick. That could happen. And we all know how much damage Cheney did in the vice-presidency. Romney in the same position could be just as destructive. And yes, I think Mitt is pragmatic enough to accept such an offer, because it does avail him the opportunity to wield real power and influence.
If you really want to focus on Santorum, so be it. I won't help you in this, not because I'm clutching my pearls and smelling salts, but because I think it is the wrong fight. And I have the (admittedly limited) experience to make that judgment. In 1988, I made a similar choice -- I voted in the Republican primary in order to deny Pat Robertson the nomination. But we still wound up with a Republican president and a lousy economy. I truly believe we cannot afford a repeat of this scenario.
Dear Markos, please rethink this tactic. I genuinely think it is the wrong one.