Conservatives Have Their Base-- Or, Rather, Bases

During the current long drawn out Republican primary season-- obviously planned down to the tea by David Plouffe-- a normal reaction would be to wonder, what serious person votes for any of these freaks? And that's not a frivolous question-- although going through all the pages and pages of shortcomings of these candidates would be. No doubt Plouffe selected all of them as well. Santorum just won-- pretty substantially-- three of the most backward (and backward by every conceivable measure) states in the Union, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana and there can be little doubt why he's winning states like that. Yes, it's the backwardness being drawn to his backward message. Makes sense. And Romney... he's basically winning all the non-Confederate states. In fact, Republicans are saying that if Romney beats him in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, it's all over and Romney's the winner. But why does he have a base? Or does he? Sure he does, rich people.

I remember when it was the people who make over $250,000 a year that saved him from red neck humiliation in Ohio. And even in Louisiana, where he was trounced-- you watched that Pelosi video linked above? Louisiana is next door to Mississippi... and they vie for the prize-- rich people were true to their school, even though Santorum won 63 of Louisiana's 64 parishes and kicked his butt by a startling 22 points. Romney, the putative GOP nominee lost every single demographic group except one-- people making over $200,000 a year. Steve Benen put this simple but extremely telling graph together:


Every single Republican with a car elevator in his or her home is voting for Willard. So, yes... Romney is the candidate of the one percent; period.

How about Democratic Party conservatives? Who's their base? Another good question, and one that was demonstrated at a live chat a few weeks ago at Blue NC featuring conservative Terry Bellamy. Bellamy, a very reactionary and small-minded Blue Dog-type who masks her disgusting bigotry in "religious convictions," tried-- unsuccessfully-- to play down her anti-LGBT prejudices. She also managed to make it clear that she stands with the Republicans on women's Choice.


She's against Choice and it sounds like she's be the perfect little stooge in the Republican War Against Women. Do Democrats really want to nominate a candidate who basically parrots Patrick McHenry? Will Democratic women feel enthusiastic about going out to vote for someone who says "I personally am opposed to abortion except in cases of rape, incest or where the life of the mother is at risk?" The DCCC seems to think so. They attack Republicans for saying the exact same thing and then push this shill against progressive state Rep. Patsy Keever. Very strange.

As for the politically active LGBT community (and their friends and relatives)... somehow I feel that between Bellamy's horribly anti-gay voting record on the City Council and statements like "My faith informs me that marriage is between one man and one woman," she's not going to be able to inspire much support. But, like Santorum and Romney, she does have a base-- small-minded bigots.

And here's where Terry Bellamy (D) and Rick Santorum (R) come together and meld into one hideous beast:

Evangelicals have cast a majority of the vote in the Republican presidential primaries so far in the 2012 cycle, the highest percentage recorded in a presidential nominating process in the modern era, according to an analysis of entrance and exit polls conducted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition.

Through March 12, an estimated total of 4.29 million evangelical Christian voters have gone to the polls in the 16 primaries and caucuses for which exit or entrance polls were conducted by news organizations, out of a total of 8.49 million total votes cast. This 50.53% evangelical turnout rate compares to a 44% turnout rate in the 2008.“Conservative people of faith are playing a larger role in shaping the contours and affecting the trajectory of the Republican presidential nomination contest than at any time since they began pouring out of the pews and into the precincts in the late 1970’s,” said Ralph Reed, founder and chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. “They are indispensable to any winning strategy for the eventual Republican presidential nominee in both the primaries and the general election. Any candidate who ignores these voters and the values that motivate them does so at their own peril.”

These are the people who have contorted Jesus Christ's message of love and peace into a satanic message of hatred and violence. These are very dangerous people with very dangerous beliefs, regardless of political party. As you probably know, Blue America is supporting Patsy Keever for Congress and we're asking people who think Congress has enough haters already to donate to her campaign and make sure Bellamy never gets into Congress with her primitive, mean-spirited and very backward ideas. You can contribute to Keever's campaign here.