Its the economy stupid
California is proposing a new bill. The bill would have a negiative impact on the porn industry. The bill is being suported by democrats. It is being blocked by republicans.
Some folks have a hard time understanding this. After all, so the logic goes, the democrats stand up for diversity and freedom of expresion. And those nasty republicans are all a bunch of closeminded prudes who would love nothing better than to destroy all forms of sexual expresion. How on earth can republicans be for porn and democrats be againt porn?
How do you resolve this paradox? Well, if you are like Violet Blue in an article this week about the porn tax, you just blame the christian right anyway. Some of the more blatant passages are ‘Calderon — and his fundie cronies — want to tax your lube to save our schools’ and ‘Calderon’s office doesn’t need data when they have the lord on their side’ and probably most ironicly ‘Manufactured outrage always gets the job done in politics when it comes to gay marriage, wars, sexual predators and porn’ ….. As if manufactured outrage againt bible-thumpers is a totaly unknown political tactic????
Yet there is no need to resort to freaudian projection. Its easy to understand why democrats would suport this bill and republicans woudl block it. You just gotta drop the steriotypes of these two groups and see what they are both realy about.
The ‘core’ of the republican party is not bible thumping prudes. They are economic consertives. Their ralling cry is not ‘the bible says so’ but rather ‘let the free market handel it’. Fox news dosent spend all day quoting scripture nor do their anchors bow their head and lead the audence in prayer. What they will do is defend business. Privatising social security is not a goal because jesus told them to privitize social security. Its a goal because they believe there is nothing government can do that the private sector cant do better. The free market becomes the solution to EVERYTHING even to the point of sillynes. (Oh god! I drove off the road and went into a river. The car is filling up with watter. Well, no worry, the free market can solve this.)
Likewise, the democratic party isnt a bunch of bleeding hears that feel compasion for the downtroden. Their goal is to blame every bad thing that happens on ‘big businss’ and then go about extracint revenge. Go watch some old episodes of ‘Bullshit!’ with Penn and Teller. They explain it lots better than I can. The enviromental movement is not about protecting the earth as much as it is punishing oil companies. Wall mart hatret is not about the plight of underpaid employees. Its just that wall mart is big business and big business is always evil.
Thats why each side is suporting the porn tax the way it is. The budget of california is in free-fall. The democrats want to make sure businesses pay their ‘fair share’. The republicans are oposed to any new form of taxes, especialy any taxes againt business. And since stripbars, porn video rental places, adult toy marts, and so forth are all businesses. The donkies and elephants are lining up on wether they want to suport or punish busineses.
Its not abotu moral or ethics or ‘protecting family values’. Nor is it about freedom and compasion and the right to free speach. You want to understand anything that happens in politics, you got to drop the notion that the republicans are bible thumpers and that the democrats are bleading hears. You want to understand anything that happens in politics, just follow the money.