Feministe Asks: Are We Hitting the Whole "Culture of Life" Thing a Little Too Hard?

From Dylan at Feministe:

So, much has been made, recently, about the concocted phrase “Culture of Life,” (as my friend, Lori said in the comments at SRWU yesterday, “”Culture of Life” that phrase bothers me for some reason..is it redundant? (or simply contrived…). Isn’t a culture definitively something teeming with life?”). The redundancies go far beyond that, however. I don’t know how the Democrats plan to handle this in the midterm elections, but if they aren’t pounding their fists on the podium, and reading off the names of everyone execution that President Bush has presided over in Texas, then they aren’t ready to win.

But, I do wonder if too much assault on the “Culture of Life” might not do us some harm. Right now, the Republicans appear a bit vulnerable on this issue, but they have not been truly vulnerable for quite a few years now, and every time we “mis-under-estimate” them, we have been slapped back down by the harsh mistress of reality. The Republicans are good… very good at this game, and the Democrats have fallen into their traps too often.

The reason I worry is, at some point, don’t we just seem like we are stepping up and attacking “life” in general? If we keep going on and on and on, eventually it gets whitewashed into this sort of din of noise from which the only clear thing that comes out is that we are for killing babies and old, useless people.

Well... er...I agree but not entirely absolutely.

The Rabid Wrongies are great for coming up with happy horseshit names. In fact, they're so good at it that they call their happy horseshit marketing department The Council of Cosmetic Application to a Swine's Lips. Wrap up a bunch of more brawn than brains and more pork than muscle, add blonde hair bleach and a red suit, and call it the "American Family Council" and "Concerned Women Who Are Really Male Homophobes for America" and The Minuteman Project and pretend it's not manned by people who are still disappointed the KKK can't meet in public anymore unless it's for a pro-Bush candidate and sad they had to paint all the lawn jockeys white.

Is this the entire South? No. But they know how to fool the entire South into thinking it is. They're good in their Machiavellian pursuits, I grant you.

At some point, however, you just have to stop pretending to give credibility to every pet project and Patriotic little pap they put forth. Especially when the "Culture of Life" mailing list is probably filled with the same names as the "Hurt Abortionists" and the "Save Some Tax Dollars: Execute Teens" mailing lists.

However, you're right. We can't snark our way out of GOP gridlock in 2006. I think we need to be sure that everyone - including the South - understands that the "Culture of Life" people are the same loonies done up in a different configuration and that they're getting closer and closer to threatening everyone's lives now. You won't be able to take a pill, consult a doctor, decide you don't want half your brain removed, or what is and isn't acceptable for you without having Randall Terry and James Dobson signing off on that.