For most of my Voting Age life, from the early 1980's and ending about almost exactly November 6, 2012, the GOP won a lot of elections, statewide and nationwide, based on one simple premiss: Divide and Conquer. Democrats since at least the 1960's have been a diverse bunch. We are the Whites, Blacks, Browns and Yellows. We are the Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims and Atheists. We are the Straights, Gays and other LGBT. We are Old, Young, and somewhere in between.
And the GOP had our number. And they had the Wedges: Abortion, Gay Rights, Class Warfare, International Security, Guns, Privacy.
I think they had these things on their side pretty much through the election of 2008. It was thanks to impending economic collapse that we had the chance to reclaim the White House.
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In 2012 though, I think the worm finally turned. All of the sudden some of their most reliable wedges were being used against them. They had spent the better part of two decades chipping away a Women's Rights, and they appeared not to notice that the "debate" had become whether or not a woman who had been raped deserved an abortion. They didn't notice that when the Susan Komen Foundation pulled funding for Planned Parenthood, that everyone noticed that poor women were not going to be able to get free mammograms.
They failed to realize that after decades, if not centuries of ostracization, the LGBT community's greatest triumph (coming out of the closet) had succeeded in changing the majority of Americans decidedly "pro-gay".
They still are apparently impervious to the polls showing that Americans want some common sense controls on who can and who shouldn't be allowed to obtain firearms. Maybe not Assault Rifle bans, but almost surely Universal pre-purchase background checks.
Can we take advantage?
I want so badly to show the GOP and the Tea-Party what it is like to be on the wrong end of the wedge. Democrats, while never homogenous, have started to do well looking out for each other. Our Men support Women's Rights. Our Straights support Same Sex Marriage. Our Whites support Immigration Reform.
It seems like a good time to use carefully selected issues like these to really start hammering the GOP. Wendy Davis in Texas. Just about Anybody in Ohio. And as added Ammunition, I offer this article I found over on a Houston news site about the new ACA doughnut created in Red States which refused to expand Medicaid. The article itself stated that it is just a matter of time before the people affected notice that this coverage gap was intentional and deliberate on the part of GOP governors and legislatures.
I don't know what wedges that the GOP has against us anymore. They have gotten so extreme that the tools are all at our disposal now, should we choose to use them.