Unions, churches square off (Article on Southeastern OH swing voters)

[RevolutionStartsNow]

Undecided Southern Ohio voters mull what they see as a choice between their job and their god

http://news.newspress.com/election2004/ohio101904.html

This is an interesting article about voters who are torn between the economic reality of OH in 2004 and the wedge issue of gay marriage.

[Anakin Skywalker]

1. Swingers? That Sounds Sinful!

This is one of those occasions where you get to differentiate between the adults and the naive children who think santa will bring them things. Hint: Adults being adults, they are the ones who care about jobs! :)

[theHandpuppet]

2. Kicking...

Interesting article well worth reading. Sad that people without health care or jobs seem more concerned with how much they should hate gay folks. But it all ties in with a discussion we were having yesterday on this forum (RE: Frightening Analysis Of Kerry's Problems in West Virginia) concerning the power held in small Appalchian communities by many fundamentalist churches.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

3. Yo! This is good read!

I'm going to Southern Ohio so this is very interesting to me.

I like the guy who says "I've had enough of George W. Bush and the Republicans," he said. "They've torn up the Constitution, thrown it on the floor and spit on it."

[GOPBasher]

4. I can't read this article; it will just piss me off.

I just cannot fucking believe that there are people this stupid in our country. How in hell can you be more concerned with gay marriage than your own family's economic security? Gee, I work for $8.00/hr; I can't feed my family; my children go to piss-poor schools that have no money whatsoever, so they can't hire any good teachers, leaving these kids with two strikes against them as they try to succeed in life; and no one in the family has health insurance. Now, I can use some government assistance to help my family in our situation, but NO! NO! NO! I can't vote for Democrats because they don't hate gay people enough! Fucking morons.

[0rganism]

5. Marx was correct about religion

"Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

"The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo."

Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegels Philosophy of Right

[Silverhair]

6. That's why those are called WEDGE issues.

A wedge issue doesn't attempt to conver all, or even a majority of it's target. It only attempts to peel off some to be effective. I warned of the effect of gay marriage as a wedge issue several months ago. It is cutting into Kerry's support from Blacks and Latinos too, and hurting him some among Catholics.

If a wedge only converts off 1 in 50 of your base, that 2% of your base, and that hurts, especially in a close election.

And some of those union members are gun owners and they are being targeted by the NRA. That's still another wedge issue. That's why Kerry went hunting, but I don't think it was effective. It was too obviously a photo op, and Kerry showed a lack of knowledge of the hunting community in one of his statements. "I am a hunter and a gunner.." Gun owners don't call themselves "gunners". They call themselves "shooters".