"anti-neoCon" includes neoCon Democrats

DeadElephant.ORG was launched a month before the '06 election for Congress and the Senate. Most of us on the Left assumed that the minority Democrats then in office were simply cowed by the Republican juggernaut, and that if we could win them a majority then circumstances would dramatically shift. Perhaps that was wishful thinking, but at the time it seemed obvious. And after election night our hopes were high.

Patriots who demand an end to this immoral war, an end to "faith-based" reasoning that trumps any commitment to honesty or facts, and an end to the buildup of a police state in "the homeland", have repeatedly been disappointed by the newly-empowered Democrats. The real attitude of "our" party was laid bare when half of them voted to censure MoveOn -- and worse has already happened even in the few weeks since that.

To the degree to which they operate as a "Republican-lite" party, our communal prayer for the Democrats is well-captured by the dead elephant symbol.

I'll NEVER outflank them on their right.

No matter how wide we imagine the ideological divide in our country to be, the reality is that it is much wider. The issue that always arises with DeadElephant is that some people on the left fail to understand that it's a parody. Consider the following DeadElephant slogans:

• "What torture?"
• "Rich people deserve it"
• "Human rights for the right humans"
• "Let's just lynch liberals"

Those who miss the parody take these as advocating horrors. In every case I've tried to push the sentiment to the right of the Right to emphasize that I am mocking the Right. I mean, who the hell could possibly believe that anyone would openly advocate lynching?!

But after reading the this investigative report: http://www.alternet.org/story/57001/

which quotes a number of prominent right-wingers on a private cruise sponsored by the National Review, it's plain that my wildest efforts to mock the right are still falling well left of the mark. Here are some real quotes:

• "Just take a couple of these prominent liberals who are trying to demoralize the country, these anti-war people, off to the gas chamber for treason to show, if you try to bring down America at a time of war, that's what you'll get."
• "the Iraq war has been an amazing success"
• One of the Park Avenue ladies declares that she gets on her knees every day to " thank God for Fox News".
• Pinochet is a hero. He saved Chile." "And he privatised social security."
• "If the Ku Klux Klan supports equal rights, then God bless them.

It's too much. I'll never be able to outflank them on the right. Tom Leher was once asked why he stopped writing political satire songs. He replied that satire died when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.