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• Wednesday, September 27, 2006 08:07 PM

  Despair & Hope

  Well, that was hideously depressing. Shall I read that book now, or just blow my brains out?

  Actually, I find some hope in one thing which was mentioned in the article: that for the right wing movement, particularly the religious faction, the job is "half finished". All the shit that this country has gone through apparently hasn't woken up Sleeping America, but I guarantee you this: once the right-wingers start taking away condoms and birth control pills, there's going to be a rude awakening.

  Real success, for the right wing, can only lead to disaster. And the only way for the players behind the scenes to avoid that disaster is to spin the issue out as long as possible, as they've done with abortion.

  People like George Bush and Dick Cheney - well, Cheney, anyway - know that a flat-out ban on contraception would get a lot of formerly apathetic people to start voting. So they'll "try hard", issue a lot of bills, and keep losing. That way they can keep the issue as a means to galvanize the slack-jawed yokels who support them, and who apparently will never realize that they're being utterly manipulated.

  But I don't think that the Christian Right will accept that status quo forever. Witness their recent pushes on abortion. These people want red meat, though, and one way or another they're going to get it.

  We can only hope that the body politic gets its head out of its ass before environmental collapse renders the whole issue moot.

  —Peter Maranci Read Peter Maranci's other letters
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