Public Not Buying Into The "Culture War"

(Cartoon above is by Clay Bennett in the Chattanooga Times Free Press.)

The Republican economic policies ("trickle-down"economics) has been exposed as an utter failure. Their theory that lowering taxes for the rich and the corporations (but not ordinary Americans) is the cure for what ails the U.S. economy is laughable, and the people no longer accept it. The people want job creation, and they want the rich and the corporations to stop their tax avoidance and pair their fair share -- and they want the outsourcing of American jobs to stop.

But while the Republicans may be mistaken in their economic approach, they are not complete idiots. They know they are losing the economic argument. So they have now switched gears. They have gone back to an old standard of theirs -- the culture war. They have been making thinly-veiled comments appealing to the lingering racism in this country, and they are again attacking women's rights (abortion, contraception, etc.). And of course, they are again using their current favorite -- homophobia.

Although they cloak this in religious terminology, it is nothing more than bigotry. They want to scare enough white people into voting to keep them in office by inferring that the minorities, feminists, and homosexuals are trying to steal "their" country, while the liberals and atheists want to outlaw "their" religion. Republicans are trying to sell the bigoted lie that the country can be returned to a time when rights and power were reserved for white males.

Fortunately, the public is not buying it. At least they are not buying it as an issue for this coming election. A new Gallup Poll surveyed a nationwide sample of voters between February 16th and 19th to see what issues would be important to them in the coming election. The top two issues were the economy and unemployment. About 92% of all respondents said the economy was either extremely or very important, while 82% said the same about unemployment.

How did the culture war issues fare in the survey? Not too well. Only 38% said they were either extremely or very important -- and only 15% said they were extremely important. If this is really what the Republicans want to base their campaign on, then they are waging a losing campaign. The American people are not interested in spreading bigotry and hate -- they want solutions for the failing economy and high unemployment.

This effectively puts the Republicans between a rock and a hard place. Their economic plan (give rich people more money) is no longer acceptable to the residents of Main Street, and neither is their culture war campaign to reinstate bigotry. Sadly, they have nothing else to offer.