It's all about hate.

So, one of my mantras used to go "It's all about race. It's always about race."

And that covers an awful lot of American politics nowadays. For example, the anti-immigrant stuff blowing up around the Sensenbrenner Bill is all about race, and only tangentially about security or justice.

We can lump racism, sexism, and homophobia together into a broader group, call it 'hate,' and we then we have a unifying theory of the Republican Congress' domeststic agenda. Blame women for unwanted pregnancies, blame homosexuals for wanting to be happy and having rights, blame immigrants for everything.

I hope they enjoy lying in bed with the Evangelicals, because the women and the latinos that they had been courting will be slamming the door on the Republicans... any... second... now....

On the other hand, our President's foreign policy is driven by a different engine: money. Specifically, oil money.

So that about covers it. A hate-driven domestic agenda, and a greed-driven foreign policy.

Global warming and the environment? They won't start paying attention to that until their Hummers' engines are flooded with seawater. Or until they can make the environment into a hate or greed issue.

Do you think there will ever be a government agenda based on life, liberty, and the pusuit of happiness? Civil rights, socioeconomic development, and respect for cultures and the evironment?

I doubt. It seems to me that conservatives believe that rights, respect, and money are all mutually exclusive. And that when push comes to shove, they'll pick money.