The Republican convention seems to be made up of coalition-building, lying about John Kerry, and as little policy talk as possible. But it’s worth remembering what the party today is really about.

At a closed, invitation-only Bush campaign rally for Christian conservatives yesterday, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas called for a broad social conservative agenda notably different from the televised presentations at the Republican convention, including adopting requirements that pregnant women considering abortions be offered anesthetics for their fetuses and loosening requirements on the separation of church and state… We must win this culture war,” Senator Brownback urged a crowd of several hundred in a packed ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. (NYT via the Poor Man)

If you’re a moderate or liberal who’s considering voting for George W Bush on War on Terror grounds, please, please remember that this is what the modern Republican party is like. If he wins a second term, Mr Bush will get to pick at least one, possibly more, Supreme Court justices. The party will then be able to get going properly on ‘culture wars’… and the theocracy is scheduled to begin in 2030, or thereabouts.

Now, I believe the ‘War on Terror’ is somewhat overblown; that the crazed maniacs who want everyone to die are fewer in number than the current adminstration wants us to believe, and are best dealt with by using intelligence effectively and enforcing the law – not by invading half the world and suspending civil liberties.

But that doesn’t matter. Even if you believe wholeheartedly that we are in a serious war between the West and Islamic theocracy that we could conceivably lose, and (for whatever strange reason) believe that George W Bush is persuing it successfully, are you willing to stand up to the deranged theocrats by, err, surrendering to another bunch of deranged theocrats?

Andrew Sullivan is a man who definitely fits the latter category. He’s now starting to realise that nothing is worth electing these people for another four years. If you’re in this camp, the election is in *your* hands.

I don’t live in the USA, and certainly won’t get a vote this year. And if the Republicans win in November, their scary domestic crew will only impact marginally on my life. But I do admire what the USA has long stood for (much as joking otherwise is fun, and much as it sometimes fails to live up to its ideas) – democracy, tolerance, and classical liberalism.

The Republican party, like Al Qaeda, are opposed to all of these things. Unlike Al Qaeda, the American people have the power to get rid of them within three months of now.