Standing up for Something.

Seth has been spending time over at Loyal Achates' place. And the results are, well, quite something indeed (check the comment thread here as well).

Achates is about as uber left-wing kook fringe as you can possibly get. I mean, the guy makes Kos look like Zell Miller, for cryin' out loud. The rebuttals in his comment thread completely squash his arguments (ed. note: in Sethian fashion, no less), so there is really nothing much more to say. Although this statement by Achates made me pause:

Most of Bush's positions are very unpopular with the majority of Americans, but he won because he concentrated on issues that his supporters felt passionately about, such as abortion and gay marriage.

This statement is logically, factually, and common sensically false. If most of his positions truly are very unpopular with the majority of Americans, how in the blue hades did he win the election by such a large margin? The guy had 51% of the popular vote! Are people in the USA truly that stupid, that they would vote en masse for a guy they almost completely disagree with? I think not. If most of his positions were "very unpopular with the majority of Americans", they would have voted for the other guy.
If he is going to say something like that, he must confess the same is true of every president. I mean, no candidate can be all things to all people, it just aint possible.
As well, the abortion and gay marriage issues were not emphasized as much as Achates would like to think. Perhaps my memory is bad, but I seem to recall that the GOP strategy was to emphasize the importance of the war on terror and show how namby-pamby/flip-floppy Kerry was (is). Social Security was also at the forefront, as was the growth of the economy since 9/11. Remember- the gay marriage referendum was also held in oh-so-conservative states like Michigan (Kerry by 3%), Ohio (Bush by 2%), and Oregon (Kerry by 4%). Fact is, a lot of people who voted against SSM voted for Kerry. It's a shame the democratic party doesn't pick up on this stuff.
As for abortion, it is the way it is in the US. Bush did not run on a platform of "I'm going to ban all abortions". All he ever said was that he wanted to promote a culture of life. I read that to mean a culture of responsibility, which is what people in Canada and the USA desperately need a shot of. That is why is he can be pro-death penalty, and pro-life at the same time. It's all about responsibility. People taking responsibility for their actions.

That's my two cents. But go read the whole post and the comments. See for yourself.