Maggots Clean Wounds

In 1967 Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. It is no coincidence that the South, feeling bitterly betrayed by the Federal government, began its lumbering shift to the political right as a result. The latent homophobia and racism of the southern Democrat simply shifted with it, and became the latent homophobia and racism of the southern Republican. Perhaps the LBJ model is one that may yet work again. If a dyed-in-the-wool conservative like George W. Bush were to betray his political base by committing a single, bold, decisive blow for civil rights – the bigots would abandon him as they abandoned the party of LBJ. The left could once again attain the reins of power. Why may this be the best possible hope for reclaiming the White House in 2008 (or 2012)? Well, because racists bigots will continue to be racists bigots – no matter what. If the 2004 election tells us anything, it tells us something we already know: people will not vote in their own economic interests if such a vote means that they'll have to live next to faggots and niggers. Rush Limbaugh, quite sadly, is correct: this is a conservative country. It has become more so over the last 12 years as the political gurus and spin-doctors of the Right have played to the cultural prejudices and outright bigotry of rural America. The votes don't lie. People are terrified of homosexuals, atheism, Harry Potter and Charles Darwin. Centuries of enlightenment and galactic leaps of science have had no discernible impact on the knuckle-dragging troglodytes of the U.S. Senate. The voters aren't fools: they're assholes. And as they say in that terrible, hateful, monstrously shit-smeared film Team America: World Police: it takes a dick to fuck an asshole.