Reply #11: Dog whistle politics

[Squeech]

Great phrase they use in Britain. The idea is that politicians know their constituencies so well that they can tailor their speeches so most people don't know what they're saying, but for the specifically targeted audience, the point shines through.

Apparently Rove knows how to use the dog whistle. In the debates with Kerry, Bush brought up the Dred Scott case, in a context that didn't make any sense to us-- but apparently it's a known signifier of anti-abortion politics (the idea is that mothers shouldn't "own" the fetus like masters owned slaves).

So you could well be right about "Left Behind."

It occurs to me that Rapturists are on the wrong side of Pascal's wager. What Pascal said originally was that we should act as if the received Judeo-Christian God is real. If He isn't, and we really die, we will still have lived a decent life. Whereas if He is real, and we live in apostasy, we lose the ultimate bet with eternity. But the rapturists (and their pet chimp pResident) are staking not only their own but all of our chips on Jesus coming back soon, and if they're wrong, we will all suffer horribly.