Give the Religious Right Two or Three Decades and They Realize They're Pigeons

(Keywords: politics, election, religious right, the embarrassment of figuring out the obvious )

FOXNews.com has a story about how the religious right is coming to realize they've been chumps since Reagan first took up the banner of abortion and led the charge up a dead end.

"'You can cut it with a knife, that’s how upset they are,' said Richard Viguerie, a long-time member of the social conservative movement, which is largely evangelical and considered to be the base of last year's presidential victory.

"[...]

"'I definitely think there are morale problems and waning enthusiasm,' said Gary Bauer, head of the , a conservative political action committee."

The story goes on to say that the circus of idiots outside of Terri Schiavo's hospice were disappointed with the outcome of that fiasco, providing me with my first 'well, duh!' moment of my day. Even after an autopsy confirmed that her brain was basically hollow, they still think they were right.

See, that's science. Science is evil. Booga booga.

I think it's pretty funny that the religious nutcases are finally realizing they've been screwed repeatedly. Man, talk about slow learners. The most shocking thing about the fact that Bush's approval numbers are at an all time low is that it means that 32% of americans are in about the same mental shape as Schiavo was when she died - they have no functioning brain.

Look back to the last presidential election. In fact, let me sum up the GOP message - Iraq, flip-flop, gay marriage, swift boat, gay marriage, abortion, gay marriage, freedom fries, gay marriage, gay marriage, terror alert, terror alert, gay marriage, gay marriage, gay marriage.

Pretty much it, right? So Bush squeezes out the slimmest of margins and claims a mandate for - wait for it - social security reform. For the voters who barely put him over the top, he might as well have been advocating a war on egg bagels - they didn't give a hot bowl. "What the hell happened to gay marriage?" they asked and Bush's dream of an extremely effed-up social security system died.

To the rescue ride Bill Frist and Rick Santorum with a petition to ban same sex marriage. WTF? A petition? Wow, harsh...

See, they're saving same sex marriage for '08, but it doesn't stop them from making hay with it now. But it's pretty lousy hay - petitions are great, but they don't really do anything but lay groundwork. These guys are taking an issue that got Bush elected and strengthened their majority and acting like it just came up. A petition is square one. They're basically starting over, as if they'd been soundly defeated in a half-hearted fight they barely brought up.

The morons who believed that Bush had a mandate could be excused for asking, "This is what you do with a mandate?" The question is, what do they do with the party? If the GOP doesn't doesn't do something to address their lunatic base, if they don't toss them a pretty big bone, they may have a Ross Perot type third party problem again in '08.

Here's hoping they keep screwing the religious right over - it's the best course for America.

--Wisco

P.S. I can't get enough of that photo. That nutjob woman's reaction is priceless!