Reader E-mail

Not all of the e-mail I get is hate mail:

David has an issue with my posting about political polling:

You were stupid for trusting the exit polls! They're crap! How else can you explain that 23% of gay people voted for President Bush?

Well David, maybe that's the 23% of the gay population that never wants to get married? I was also stumped by that figure.

This one comes from Steve:

I really don't think that the President would attempt to make abortion illegal. I am opposed to abortion and think it's murder. But I recognize (as does the Pres) that it would be extremely difficult and probably politically dangerous to try to make it illegal. I think he will appoint pro-life judges, from the Supremem Court all the way down. Hopefully he -- and the judges -- would take a more common sense approach. For instance, why can't we pass consent laws which require parental notification before giving teens an abortion when high schools won't even give Tylenol with parental consent. The word "duh" comes to mind.

Realistically, 9/11 and the aftermath aside, I think Bush's goal, like every first term president, was to win a second term. With a Repub majority in Congress that's where you'll see him begin to make more ideologically based moves. I would be very surprised to see him make a drastic lurch to the right with a draconian "abortion is illegal" proclamation. This country has moved leftward incrementally since the post-WWII era and that's how I think we'll move back. There would be too much backlash otherwise. More tax cuts? Yeah. Pro-life judges? Yeah. Making abortion illegal? Ain't gonna happen.

The interesting thing about this post is that Steve doesn't seem to recognize the long-term implications of having a majority of pro-life judges. I wish that some pro-life person would stand up and admit that making it illegal and less accessible will not prevent abortion from occurring.

Finally, echo doctor made raised a number of important issues about the recent exodus from the Bush Administration's cabinet. Is this historically typical? What impact will this have on the next 4 years? Is it a sign of the evil that lurks within?

Share your comments on these postings. You can even do so anonymously, believe me, a lot of the Category 1 Hate Mail I get is anonymous.