I had to say it, even at the risk of being proven wrong and showing myself to be a fool.
If you really think that Republicans don’t have this managed, then you haven’t been listening, and you don’t know much about their media machine or their appeal. You think the ultimte fallout is based on polls showing that the public disapproves of Terri’s treatment. Polls are stupid. It’s takeaway that’s important: what people will look back on this case and remember, regardless of the facts.
They will remember that Michael Schiavo was a scumbag. They will remember that opinion being solidified by the emergence of nurses who claim that Michael tried to off Terri with insulin, or called her a bitch, or whatever, all of which has been brought out with expert timing. No American populace that has ever lived is going to remember Michael as the good guy, and her parents, who have been far far far more closely pictured and associated with marytr Terri, the bad guys.
They will remember that, whatever the merits of the particular case, the right came down on trying to save a life, and the left came down on too eagerly trying to get it ended. I know, I know, the appeals court said that courts should err on the side of life, and that this case overcomes that burden with convincing evidence that she would want to die. But that’s not what people on the right really mean when they say that. When they say “err on the side of life” what they mean is that no one should make any attempt to argue that she shouldn’t be kept alive. Doing that at all makes you suspect, period.
All the sane, rational arguments to the contrary have recieved thourough writing off by the right. Think you have a knockdown argument about Bush’s hypocrisy in regards to the Texas law? Get over yourself. The right already has that one managed and even gets to turn it around and make you look like a reaching dumbass for pushing it. They’ve done that for every argument you can think of. Sorry. Who’s right doesn’t matter: who’s better at this does. And they are much better at it than you are.
This, more than anything else, solidifies the right wing base in a way that will make it harder than ever for the Democrats to ever steal it away. A woman was being put to death, and Congressional Republicans were the ones to have the balls to stand up to the courts, stand up to popular opinion, and try to do something about it.
And what about conservatives who are not exactly enthused about the federal government’s action in this case? Are they going to suddenly switch sides just because they think the majority has become abusive of its power? Not on your life. Most will still at least marginally buy into the Limbaugh/O’Reily take on the facts of the case, even if they think those guys are harmless or even embarrasing jokesters and entertainers that are beneath them and serious conservative thought. They certianly won’t buy the goofy legal manuevers, but as always, they will at least tepidly, at least for the purposes of presenting another side, defend any sort of conservative social demands. And the rest will not move them an inch. Not because they are irrational defenders of everything their party does, but because they know that this was an extreme situation, obviously a mix of both sincere (if misled) emotion as well as politics, which in the end is not something that can be deeply faulted when found in politicians. These conservatives have happily turned around and took it in regards to the pandering to the religious right for years, no matter how absurd. Not becuase they are idiots or necessarily believe it all. Because they know the value of a coalition, and they are not going to spend much time railing about their own party just because it knows it has to have a broad appeal that includes religious conservatives.
So, get real.
