Inauguration Notes: The Bushies

Prominent among the Bushies is the religious right. Here you will find many who have come to town for both the inauguration and the Roe anniversary. Many of them are former Democrats who believe that legalized abortion is a cancer on the nation, demanding the retribution of angry God. They are also scandalized by a perceived decline in morals - as evidenced by the open acceptance of gay relationships in popular culture, as well as the saturation of sexual immorality on the airwaves and cable networks. I will deal with abortion below. As to popular culture, I don't quite believe that this generation is any more sexually active in either orientation than any that precedes it. The greatest generation did its share of whoring on leave, as did the doughboys who went "over there" in the first war.

What has changed is the empowerment of women, who expect the same sexual freedom as their male counterparts, the economic disempowerment of youth - so that horny teenagers and twenty-somethings who would have been married a century ago now simply fornicate because they cannot afford to live independently, and the magnification of all of this in the entertainment industry - which did not invade our homes until the invention of television (except in baudy literature, which has existed as long as writing). I discussed the media in my last article (see below) and I discuss how to empower youth on my web page at http://www.christianleft.net/21stCentury/Careers.html. In short, it is time to shift support of our youth from their parents to their prospective employers.

The right is also joined by its own elite, the wealthier types who care less about its social agenda (unless they make money manipulating it) and more about securing the economic gains of conservatism, including large military contracts and tax benefits for corporations and wealthy taxpayer/bondholders (who would rather receive more in interest than they pay in taxes). If you want to know more about how I would deal with the wealthy, go to http://www.christianleft.net/FiscalPolitics/economicstimulus.html.

I will talk more about militarism below.