Dred Scott and Other Code-Words For The Imminent Second Coming

In the debate last week, Bush mentioned the Dred Scott case. Much of the blogosphere started scraching their heads, trying to figure otu what it all means. Soon enough, some people figured out what it was all about: a code-word for abortion. Bush told his base, the same people that stayed at home in 2000 and Rove wants so much, that he will apply a litmus test for the choice of Supreme Court judges: overturning Roe vs. Wade.

These were the first three bloggers I saw who made the connection:

Paperwight's Fairshot (October 09, 2004 at 11:19 AM) http://fairshot.typepad.com/fairshot/

Alexa on JREgrassroots (Sat Oct 09, 2004 5:20 pm) http://www.jregrassroots.org/jre/viewtopic.php?t=8020&sid=d84fa7d438b1a552cbcdb0df0988c76e

Kynn at Daily Kos (Sat Oct 9th, 2004 at 20:46:00 GMT )
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/9/16460/5820

Soon, this was picked up by a number of other blogs and websites, including:

Salon http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/archive.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2004/10/10/dred_scott/index.html

Washington Monthly http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/

Atrios http://atrios.blogspot.com/

IsThatLegal? http://www.isthatlegal.org/

Mark Kleiman http://www.markarkleiman.com/

Blogging of the President http://www.bopnews.com/

Prometeus 6 http://www.prometheus6.org/?q=node/view/6962&PHPSESSID=c34fc03cc103c16acb134a2749e316ec

We are all eagerly awaiting the promised commentary by Publius at Legal Fiction http://lawandpolitics.blogspot.com/

It is funny to read comments by lawyers and legal scholars, all bogged down in nitty-gritty explanations what Dred Scott case really meant in the 19th century, using terminology that only professionals can understand. They are completely missing the point. George W Bush is no legal scholar. But he is an evangelical, and he's heard the Dred/Roe connection a million times. I don't know if he was surprised by the question, or painfully prepped to say exactly this, but he surely skillfully threw red meat to the base.

Are the bloggers who connect Dred with Roe correct? Of course - just check these anti-choice sites:

http://abortion.netfirms.com/whoseside.htm

http://www.nrlc.org/news/1999/NRL699/slave.html

http://www.sonomacountyfreepress.com/body/holocaust_now_part_1.html

http://www.operationsaveamerica.org/walk/live/pressReleases.html

http://swissnet.ai.mit.edu/~rauch/nvp/roe/greenberg_roe.html

Now, let's put this into a broader perspective. As I argued several times before, the Conservative ideology is losing a historical battle with The Enlightement. It is a wounded beast, lashing out, rolling its bloodshot eyes, lolling its tongue, fighting dirty for sheer survival. And when I say "conservative", I am not talking about the GOP from the 1970s - I am talking about Judge Moore, Hagelin, Lott, Helms, Thurmond, DeLay and Zell Miller (who forgot to change his registration about 25 years ago). I am talking about the GOP of today, an extreme right-wing, crypto-fascist, pseudo-Christian party that laughs at the notion of fair play. They are in it to win, and if they need to kill people, they will. If they need to pay Osama and give him a couple of Boeings to play with, they will (perhaps they already did in 2001 - the jury is still out on this conspiracy theory, but NOTHING will surprise me from these guys any more). This has nothing to do with democracy or electoral politics or negative TV ads. This is a life and death battle. An Armageddon Election. We better get prepared. This is a machine that is ready to crush bodies to win in November.

At least Kerry campaign should hire a person with personal experience with evangelicals, someone who can immediately spot and translate the code-words as they come (and who knows how many we have already missed?), someone who can work with people like Lakoff to design a workable counter-offensive and send talking points to all staffers, candidates, speechwriters, and TV spinmeisters, so everyone is prepared to respond immediately.

For further education, read my post below on Rapturists, as well as following articles:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/10/10/RVG1T9289T1.DTL
Where did the middle go? How polarized politics and a radical GOP have put a chill on measured debate

http://seetheforest.blogspot.com/2004_09_01_seetheforest_archive.html#109633221991080597
Cracking the Code
http://seetheforest.blogspot.com/

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/002982.html#more
How To Deal With The Moral Bankruptcy Of The GOP, Its Power, And Their "Stepford" Supporters

http://www.prometheus6.org/?q=node/view/6961&PHPSESSID=c34fc03cc103c16acb134a2749e316ec
This all turned out to be right interesting

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/10/10/INGEF94FCU1.DTL
Left in the wings The looming fight for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party


Go out and post on blogs, spread the word about the Dred/Roe connection, compile other code-words, send letters to the media about this. Here are some examples of recent mentions of the Dred Scott mention in the blogosphere:

Everything You Know is Wrong !NEWS2U Global News Blog http://news2u.blogspot.com

HLS Federalist Society Ex Parte http://fedsoc.blogspot.com

The S.I.C.L.E. Cell http://thesiclecell.blogspot.com

Blogrilla : The big scary monkey of blogs! http://www.blogrilla.com

The Facts Machine http://factsmachine.blogspot.com

525 Reasons to Dump Bush http://www.525reasons.com

mousemusings http://mousemusings.com/weblogs

Jarrett House North : http://www.jarretthousenorth.com

Kara Kerwin: a work in progress . . . http://www.karakerwin.net/wp

The Lincoln Plawg http://lincolnplawg.blogspot.com

mmmm, brains http://www.elfcakes.com/blogg

Weird scenes inside http://weirdscenesinside.blogspot.com

Truth About Keyes http://truthaboutkeyes.blogspot.com

ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES http://echidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com

Outside Report http://outsidereport.blogspot.com

Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: A Weblog http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type

Amygdala http://amygdalagf.blogspot.com

Hughes For America! http://hughesforamerica.typepad.com/hughes_for_america

Stumax.com http://www.stumax.com

maquis http://trondant.blogspot.com

.: Digital Orrery :. http://www.digital-orrery.com

Dangerous Times http://dangeroustimes.blogspot.com

Balkinization http://balkin.blogspot.com

The Pajama Pack http://ldotters.blogspot.com

gregor samsa's diary http://gsamsa.blogspot.com

Logos http://www.sogol.net

Desperado http://desperado-list.blogspot.com

Crimson and Cream Report http://www.burntorangereport.com

famous and nonfamous strangers http://www.nonfamous.com/blog

Rain Storm http://monsoons.blogspot.com

PBD - Progressive Blog Digest http://pbd.blogspot.com

Steve Gilliard's News Blog http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com

Dubliner in Japan http://dublinerinjapan.blogspot.com

The National Outrage http://nationaloutrage.blogspot.com

Schadenfreude http://www.schadenfreude.info

Matthew Yglesias http://yglesias.typepad.com/matthew

Lawyers, Guns and Money http://lefarkins.blogspot.com

fivecat http://anotherfivecats.blogspot.com

Fuzzy Puppy http://fuzzypuppy.blogspot.com

Linda Robertson@50plus http://lindarob50plus.blogspot.com

Steamed Rice http://www.allguinness.com/steamedrice

Intellectual Conservative http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article3114.html

Mere Sketches http://www.danrosan.org/sketches/archives/000635.html

Southern Appeal http://www.southernappeal.blogspot.com/2004_10_03_southernappeal_archive.html#109729893978366101

Balkinization http://balkin.blogspot.com/2004/10/second-presidential-debate.html


Update:

Two excellent articles that confirm our suspicions:

Words matter How Bush speaks in religious code
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/09/12/words_matter/

Bush's Code Cracked
A University of Chicago professor says he's figured out how the president is winning evangelicals' support. He's only partly right.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/138/42.0.html


UPDATE 2:
Timothy Noah caught onto this and wrote a good piece in Slate, with several excellent aditional links:

http://slate.msn.com/id/2108083/