Brownback and the Base

Brownback and the Base

Johnson County must be the hot spot on the conservative circuit: Tancredo and Brownback in the same week! You'd think we were Sioux County. But still, even though percentage-wise we're about dead last, we're still among the top ten GOP counties in the state in terms of raw numbers due to sheer population and that's significant enough for a visit.

Brownback is clearly working the dog-whistle politics of the base, talking about issues that make regular folks go huh? but make the theocrats swoon:

To help support the family, Brownback has proposed Marriage Development Accounts, which would provide a three to one financial match to couples who marry and develop a family unit. The money could be used for job training or for buying a home or car, he said.

Huh?

“I think we’ve got to rebuild the family,” Brownback said. “If you don’t get this one right, we’re not going to be able to do a lot of things down the road.”

But no Brownback Mountain funny business:

Brownback said he views marriage as being solely between a man and a woman. If the definition is changed, the number of heterosexual people who get married will drop, as shown by what has happened in other countries, he said.

The double conjuction appearance of Tancredo and Brownback is interesting as they represent distinct strains of conservatism, each with deep roots: the fundamentalism and nativism. Despite the recent emergence of Tommy and Fred, the Thompson Twins, Tancredo and Brownback are the two guys competing for the True Believer vote. Think of Tancredo as Pat Buchanan and Brownback as Alan Keyes...