Vote Righteously!

Vote Righteously!

A fascinating perspective from a defeated candidate. In Brad Carson we had the strongest possible candidate in Oklahome against the weakest possible opponent. Here's why he thinks he lost:

"The culture war is real, and it is a conflict not merely about some particular policy or legislative item, but about modernity itself. Banning gay marriage or abortion would not be sufficient to heal the cultural gulf that exists in this nation. The culture war is about matters more fundamental still: whether nationality is, in a globalized world, a random fact or whether it is the source of identity and even political legitimacy; whether one's self is a matter of choice or whether it is predetermined, before birth, by the cultural membership of one's family; whether concepts like honor and shame, which seem so quaint, are still relevant in a world that values only 'tolerance.'

Most voters in a state like Oklahoma--and I venture to say most other Southern and Midwestern states--reject the general direction of American culture and celebrate the political party that promises to reform or revise it. "

The analysis is fascinating. Carson seems to fall into the move to the cultural right fallacy but this conclusion is only implied.

My own conclusion is to fight back, to make this sort of midieval intolerance socially unacceptable just like we did in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. To argue against their basic premises. To reclaim "values" without accepting bigotry and intolerance.

UPDATE: Great discussion of this article at MyDD.