there are 2 reasons why it matters
heres the first:
"On March 21, 2005 12:44 am, the extremists in charge of the US Government showed the world that when they don't like a law or a legally valid court decision - ANY law, ANY court decision, for ANY reason, no matter how carefully adjudicated - they are prepared to rip it up. There is a word for this.
The word is fascism."
as ive railed for years, the whole 'proto-fascist' and 'pre-fascist' labels were false, and misleading. whatever remnants there were of a veil have now been lifted. no longer can we responsibly use those qualifiers.
the 2nd reason schiavo matters is this:
(taking the poll at face value for the sake of argument) as stevegilliard notes , its the last point that matters (id argue that its the only question which matters). depending on how u look at it, 2006 is either a really long way away, or not that far away. 25% of folk are *much more likely* to vote against their congresscritter. most of the dems didnt vote. these figures are appalling for the repugs. we will probably have another war or two by 2006, so maybe this issue wont matter much, short memories and all, but maybe it does have legs. it seems to have struck people as being pretty personal.
"White House strategists believe that even if only a small fraction of the country supports intervention in the Schiavo case, they tend to be more passionate and will be more likely to vote on the issue, as opposed to the broad masses that disapprove. " LINK
this logic doesnt seem to be supported by the polling, and even if it was true, you've gotta think that the fetusfolk already vote red.
the polling on this was terrible from day one. gilliard and many others ask "Why did they miscalculate so badly?" - id lift that up a level and first ask "did they miscalculate?" - and then ask whether it matters. if they miscalculated, then why is the media frenzy continuing? they completely hijacked easter. its true (as NAGOURNEY hack pointed out) that blinky and delay and frist have receded from the fray, and this lovely piece of baloney:
"STEPHANOPOULOS: And, George Will, according to some of the reporting I've seen, the President actually resisted calls from the members of Congress to get involved and to fly back at the last minute. Should have followed his instincts?"
but if they were really worried about it, u'd think they'd try to dampen things down a little, yet it seems that "The din of the Schiavo death watch continued". on sunday talk shows - not surprising with freaks like falwell and perkins and richard land polluting the airwaves. the story is still the number one story at foxnews.com - they could have easily used easter as an excuse or something.
so again, i ask whether they really did miscalculate? - or more specifically, whether they think they miscalculated. and even if they did, does it matter? probably not - becos of point1 above. there arent any mistakes in a fascist state. or there arent any consequences. thats why fascist states are so much fun. especially if you are in charge...
maybe gilliard is right tho - maybe it really is a big fuckup. and if thats true, then it is important, particularly if we assume that the country is still a democracy with a functioning rule of law and all that stuff. i kinda get the sense that things are speeding up - one imagines that theres a tipping point somewhere, and that we are racing toward it. the only question is what the world looks like the following day - riots & impeachment or military rule?
(there are of course other reasons why the schiavo case is important - particularly abortion and the judicial nominations)
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