Ezra at Pandagon -- charoming off Ygelsias -- is recommending that Democrats come out and denounce Grand Theft Auto to present a stronger moral front:

Groups establish boundaries by articulating what lies outside them. It doesn't mean we have to do anything to throw the offenders out, but we should make it clear that, indeed, Democrats aren't so culturally relative that the virtual banging and murdering of prostitutes should pass without a peep, or worse, with protestations of laissez-faire morality.

This is a Really Bad Idea. You make a terrible faustian bargain with the notion of having Dems bash video games to win the approval of existing "morality" voters. Danny Goldberg's Dispatches From The Culture Wars: How The Left Lost Teen Spirit explores how this worked in the 80s and 90s with the music industry. The cost will be paid out by loosing the kids- who will (correctly) see Democrats as wildly out of touch with their cultural values if they launch into a high-profile rhetorical battle with RockStar Games.

Why correctly? Because Democrats will be taking cheap shots at a politically defenseless (but emperically harmless) culture to score points with certain voters who do not understand or value that culture. This is intrinsically a bullshit move. As a political tactic it's the ethical (if not moral) equivalent to race-bating. While it isn't expoloitative in the same way, it is similarly dishonest and immoral.

Attacking emerging culture (of which violent video games are a part) is sinking your fist into a great big tarbaby. The idea that you could get a bunch of people in the business of running the State grandstanding about morality and not have massive pressure from the right to enact some kind of legislation (which would spark massive pushback from the Gaming industry and trigger a hard turn among its cultural adherants) is terrifically naive.

Remember, the kids ren't solid in their political beliefs; it's a mistake to count them in just because you yourself are 20 years old and convinced. A replay of the Parental Advisory battle with the Dems out front will turn a lot of people off, and I would be shocked if Republican strategists failed to work for that result.

Check out the scenario. Republicans to Democrat videogame-bashers: "Prove it! Let's have some hearings, start talking about how to clean this mess up."

Whoo boy, then you're in a bind. I'm not willing to bet that the electorate's fondness for the ACLU will stop that rough beast from slouching towards Washington to be born, and Dems will either end up in a fight they don't want, or else look like wimps and poseurs for failing to back their moral rhetoric with any sort of action. It's a big old loose-loose scenario.

A better idea would be creating a persuasive message around the nature of morality and virtual representation that's more broadly appealing and has a stronger ethical grounding as compared to simple relitavism and laissez-faire. This is more difficult for sure, but it's the only ethically/intellectually honest way to proceed, and the only way to build a solid future majority.