Heading towards being a fucking theocracy?

Amee, my sort-of-kind-of-in-a-way ex, and certainly my friend, commented tonight that that's where she thinks the country is going.

While I wouldn't say not to worry about it at all (eternal vigilance!), I'm not as worried about it as I was.

I linked to the whole latest CBS News poll earlier, but now I want to quote some interesting specific data.

A sizable segment of the public is concerned about the President's ties to evangelical Christians; 34 percent think evangelicals have too much influence in Bush's decisions. 14 percent think they have too little influence, while 25 percent think their influence is about right. 45 percent of white evangelicals themselves think they have about the right amount of influence, while another 25 percent think they have too little.

This is yet another reason Bush is fucked right now, and not in a good way. As has often been said, one of the ways he won is by concealing just how much of an influence evangelical Christianity had on his views.

Now, the more he shows his hand, the more the percentage of people across the nation who don't share those views say "Oh no, you don't." Which is most of us. And with his approval ratings in the mid '30s, he simply cannot afford--nor do I think his party leadership would allow him to--piss us off any further.

But meanwhile, the white evangelicals themselves feel, not unreasonably from their point of view, that Bush is their puppy. And if he doesn't do what they want they will hit him in the nose with a rolled-up newspaper. As with Miers.

So...he's fucked. If he does what they want him to do, he risks alienating the rest of us at a time when he can ill afford it. But if he doesn't, he finds himself in the crosshairs of weapons that he (and Rove, etc) to a large extent created.

Another poll to which I linked in passing earler today says this about "Scalito:"

If it becomes clear Alito would vote to reverse Roe v. Wade, Americans would not want the Senate to confirm him, by 53% to 37%.

This underscores something that most feminist blogs will tell you: Polls have consistenly shown that people in this country support Roe v. Wade. And despite what Bush may say about not caring about polls, I suspect he knows that.

Yeah, maybe the Bush of 2002-2004 could have kept on acting as though he had the support of the majority. But the Bush of 2005 cannot, and I doubt very much the Bush of 2006-2008 will be able to either (especially if we "pass" that mid-term).

What I'm saying is that Bush, iin a very real sense, is reaping what he has sown. And to coin a phrase...bring it on.

ETA: On the other hand, I know a way Bush could win back a lot of goodwill. Announce a public event in which Michael Brown will be tied to the ground, and members of the public can line up to smack him in the face. Hard. With a book, if necessary. Repeatedly.

Yes, some more Katrina-related documents, specifically e-mails, have come to light:

On Sept. 2, Brown received an e-mail saying that 42-foot trailers full of beds, wheelchairs and oxygen concentrators were waiting to be deployed but needed direction. Brown waited four days before finally forwarding the message to other FEMA officials, saying only: "Can we use these people?"


On Aug. 30 - the day after the storm hit and New Orleans was submerged in flood waters - Brown sent an e-mail to his assistant asking if he knew anyone who could watch his dogs.


In other e-mail exchanges, Brown expressed concern that his reputation was being tarnished. The e-mails show he spent time trying to find people to vouch for him.


And on Sept. 4, Brown's press secretary, Sharon Worthy, wrote him an e-mail about his physical appearance. "Please roll up the sleeves of your shirt ... all shirts," Worthy said. "Even the president rolled his sleeves to just below the elbow. In this crises and on TV you just need to look more hard-working ... ROLL UP THE SLEEVES!"

You know, as an '80s man, it pains me to say this...but there are times when substance is more important than style.