Maybe I'm a big sissy, but the use of "wedge issues" in politics scares the living you-know-what out of me. This is not just because wedge issues are so damnably effective, and it's not just because they are so injurious to causes I hold dear -- which they sure as hell are.
I'm a gay man who has watched in dejection as same-sex marriage -- wielded as a wedge -- drove the passage of anti-gay constitutional amendments or initiatives in 37 states. I'm an environmentalist who has watched in disbelief as calls for action on climate -- wielded as a wedge -- drove the conquest of the Republican Party by climate deniers.
Case in point: when GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney recently declared that "humans contribute" to climate change, conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh gleefully went for the kill. "Bye-bye, nomination. Another one down," Limbaugh chortled, figuratively waving Romney's scalp.
Wedge issues unleash powerful raw emotions that violate the social rules society has imposed to repress humanity's proclivity for violence. The force of these emotions sweeps away things like common decency and civil discourse. Indeed, wedge issues are cynically conceived to destroy these social rules, to bring out the worst in people. And this is what scares me.
Gay people, like other persecuted minorities, possess a special antenna for sensing the instinctive violence that lies barely suppressed beneath the thin veneer of civilization. So if crazy, angry mobs are out hunting for scalps, I figure it's mine they're after -- and I don't mean just figuratively.
That's the bad news. Here's the good news: there's a terrific way of combating the crazies, and I think gays have found it. Consider the growing acceptance of gay marriage.
"The wedge has lost its edge," says Republican strategist Mark McKinnon. McKinnon knows what he is talking about. He was media adviser to George W. Bush's 2004 campaign, when same-sex marriage ballot measures helped turn out conservative voters in a dozen states.
McKinnon's view is reinforced by new polling data released in July by Dr. Jan van Lohuizen, who served as Bush's pollster in 2000 and 2004. This new analysis, based on data over a 13-year period, shows a dramatic growth in support for same-sex marriage. Moreover, this support has increased across the board. Since 2004, for example, support has increased 15 percent among seniors, 13 percent among Independents and 8 percent even among Republicans.
This trend has led some Republican strategists to worry that the GOP is on the wrong side of the same-sex marriage issue. In a New York Times article, Steve Schmidt, who ran John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, complained that "[t]he Republican Party is shrinking ... [T]here are large demographics in this country that view the party as intolerant" (italics added).
What caused this wedge to lose its edge? I answered this question in a post here just days ago. I described how gays "stole the march" on intolerance by using mass media and pop culture to build public support for gay marriage. Shows like Modern Family and Glee -- huge hits -- subversively undermine homophobia with comedy, and millions of viewers join in the fun.
Greens have been handed an opportunity equally large and appealing. They can succeed by ridiculing anti-science. Most Tea Party activists and most of the Republican presidential candidates have made themselves vulnerable to this charge. I say, go to it!
Politically, this will benefit gays and greens alike, who, after all, share a common enemy. People who are anti-science are likely to be homophobic. People who don't believe in evolution don't believe in gay marriage.
Ridicule is especially effective. Remember how the Wicked Witch of the West melted away after the Scarecrow threw a pail of water on her? Ridicule works like that. I've taken a stab at this by producing a series of 90-second videos I'm posting on YouTube that poke fun at climate deniers. Take a look:
We aim to get the world to laugh in derision at climate deniers. Maybe, if we succeed, they'll be as dead as the Wicked Witch of the East after Dorothy dropped a house on her. As the Munchkins described the late departed, "she's not merely dead, but really most sincerely dead."
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David Skelton: The Legal Recognition Of Gay Marriage Is Absolutely The Right Thing To Do
Same-sex marriage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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If you aren't willing to make unpleasant choices on your side, then your calls for hard choices on the *other* side will be totally ignored.
Remember, too, that these shows came as a result of the growing acceptability of the GLBT and not the other way around.
And to suggest that we "won" the gay marriage debate in America because of pop culture...well, I know a lot of gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans brothers and sisters in 37 states who would vigorously disagree with you. (To say nothing of a large swath of blacks and religious Latinos).
But I am surprised you didn't mention "Will and Grace," which in its own self-loathing way opened far more doors than MF and Glee.
You can only make it illegal once.
Montana GOP Policy: Make Homosexuality Illegal
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/18/politics/main6879243.shtml
In another couple of generations the issue of gay marriage, DOMA and DADT will be non-issues made so by familiarity with gay people and rapidly falling rates of church attendance. Climate science will firm up the statistics and most people will agree with Romney that, yes, humans in very large numbers have an effect on the Earth.
In the meantime we are in for a very bumpy ride because wedge issues are the most polarizing kind and right now we don't need any more polarization.
I wholeheartedly agree that familiarity makes a major difference, as more people come to the realization that gays are JUST like everyone else, it takes the fear and unknown out of the equation.
The problem isn't religion per se.
Reading these comments is like listening to an argument between the world's stupidest person and the world's biggest jerk. Neither is very convincing.
Yup. Especially in a time when most Americans are concerned about whether they're going to get a paycheck or an unemployment check, and wonder whether they'll be able to afford a doctor bill, get a prescription or a couple of loaves of bread and some Campbell's soup, I'd say most people don't give a hoot whether Adam's sleeping with Steve or Madam's sleeping with Eve.
And when the president presents a bill that sounds like it will create some jobs and all they hear from the Republicans is "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" without offering a viable alternative, I guess most people will remember that the same party is against a lot of things, including gay rights, and not FOR very much except the religious hate groups and the top 1 percent of taxpayers.
You got it...look what Christian Europeans did to Jewish Europeans in the 1930's and 40's and lets not forget the Crusades and Inquistion....Where are those Roman lions when you need them?
Judeo-Christian tradition? I'm in Bible class now and what a bunch of hocus pocus, I prefer Greek and Roman myths......
Cheers, Joe Mustich, CT USA
Justice of the Peace.
Climate change? Leave it to the breeders to figure out or not.....
Kudos to the Wall St activists...enough with casino capitalism; off with their heads!
How ugly.
Unless things go very wrong the world should continue to get wealthier and technology will continue to advance. At 3% annual growth people would have 400% more wealth to deal with disruptions.
Adding all that together with the ounce of prevention vs a pound of cure and it is not an easy question to determine how much to invest now and sacrifice current growth vs deal with the results later.
NOTE: under no option is green energy a free lunch. Diverting investments to clean but more expensive energy will result in slower growth or at minimum force people to give up other things they value.
Then you haven't bothered to look. The world's largest banks and insurance companies have been publishing white papers on this topic for over a decade.
If you have a good example I would be grateful.
Still don’t believe me? It convinced the Swedish Skeptics Society: http://www.nyteknik.se/nyheter/energi_miljo/energi/article3144827.ece
LENR using nickel. Incredibly: Ni+H+K2CO3(heated under pressure)=Cu+lots of heat. Here is a detailed description of the device and formula from a US government contract: www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/GernertNnascenthyd.pdf
By the way, here is a current survey of all the companies that are bringing LENR to commercialization: http://www.cleantechblog.com/2011/08/the-new-breed-of-energy-catalyzers-ready-for-commercialization.html