Friday, May 05, 2006

Red or White...

One of the most basic tests of wine knowledge is matching wine to food. From what I'm told certain foods are best paired with certain wines. White wines go with fish, red with heavier meats--things like that. Knowing when to order a red vs. a white is something of a testament to ones sophistication, a mark of at least some understanding of viniculture, etc.

American politics seems to have a similar test. For the first year or so after Congressional elections the Republican Congress seems to focus its energies on delivering benefits and monetary rewards to the affluent and well connected. No bid contracts, expensive and pointless projects. There are many names for it, corruption is a popular one, greed works as well, some people like to use the term pork. The other white meat.

But then there's a moment where the focus changes. I think we're at that moment, again. It's right about this time of year when Republicans go from pork to beef, from white meat to red meat. For the next few months we should expect great anguished cries about the denigration of Christian values. Should be a whole lot of hating the gays, a whole lot of talk about the flag, and 10 Commandments.

In fact, it's not even a secret. From today's Christian Science Monitor

"GOP leaders are gearing up to bring a number of issues on the Christian conservative agenda to the floor of the House and Senate in the next few weeks, including gay marriage, broadcast decency, the 10 Commandments Act, a cloning ban, and laws protecting "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance."

Yup, it's red meat time again. Let's bash some gays, defend the millions of horribly oppressed Christians--you know the people who run and have run the government and other institutions of power for the entirety of our country's history.

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