The Republican Establishment is Completely Missing a “Teachable Moment”

[Brtblutwo]

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Definition: A teachable moment is an unplanned opportunity that arises in the classroom where a teacher has an ideal chance to offer insight to his or her students. (Current events are showing these moments are not limited to the classroom.)

Based on the findings and advice of political analyst and Nixon campaigner Kevin Phillips, and understanding the impact on the 1968 Presidential campaign by four-time governor of Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, the Nixon camp realized that rebellious Southern voters were ripe for Republican picking. Phillips correctly predicted that the Republican party would shift its national base to the South by appealing to whites' disaffection with liberal democratic racial and welfare policies. President Nixon shrewdly played this "Southern strategy" by promoting affirmative action in employment, a "wedge" issue that later Republicans would exploit to split the Democratic coalition of white working class and black voters, to the detriment of both groups.

As the decades passed, the GOP anointed itself as “the party of God”, specifically the Christian God. Through the Republican reinterpretation of scriptures, bigotry, racism, and other forms of intolerance became virtues of conservatism.

The poor, the elderly, disabled persons, non-whites, non-Christians, and liberals became the enemy of conservatism and the United States. This led the right wing to claim patriotism as being exclusively theirs. This misguided belief by conservatives has served the Republican Party, the super-rich, and Big Business well for the past five decades.

The Republican Party slowly sculpted conservatism into a political tool to serve the needs of our nation’s billionaires, while at the same time giving the issues important to their rank-and-file voting base little more than empty promises during election years. It is only the Congressional Republicans’ devotion to making Obama a one-term President that has motivated the relatively recent action to outlaw abortion, limit women’s rights, prevent same-sex marriage, and reverse over half-a-century’s progress on race relations.

Had the GOP not spent so many years instilling their loyal voters with the “virtues” mentioned above, Donald Trump’s hate filled bombast would not be drawing stadiums full of cheering conservatives.

John Cornyn, the Senate majority whip stated Donald Trump as the Republican nominee will be an “albatross”. Like nearly all other members of the GOP establishment, Cornyn is completely overlooking the “teachable moment” Trump’s successful use of hate speech is offering.

Instead of promoting the political correctness they’ve spent decades condemning, the Old Guard Republicans should jump on the hate speech bandwagon. Rep. Joe Wilson (R) started the ball rolling for the Republican abandonment of dignity, and the right-wingers loved him for it. (Remember, he’s the guy who twice shouted “You lie,” during President Obama's health care speech to Congress in September 2009.)

The RNC should quit fighting Trump. He’s shown them how hate speech is embraced by the vast majority of the Republican voting base. This has been the goal of the GOP’s years of propaganda, and many heads of Old Guard Republicans will roll if they miss this opportunity and fail to exploit it to benefit the oligarchs that own the Republican Party. Cornyn, shut up and serve those who paid to get you elected.

No. 2 U.S. Senate Republican voices unease over Trump candidacy - CNN | Reuters


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[Hawkeye10]

Trump’s hate filled bombast

We hear this a lot from some sectors of America. Some people are so excitable about words. Fun to watch sure but also SAD.

 

[maxparrish]

Based on the findings and advice of political analyst and Nixon campaigner Kevin Phillips, and understanding the impact on the 1968 Presidential campaign by four-time governor of Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, the Nixon camp realized that rebellious Southern voters were ripe for Republican picking. Phillips correctly predicted ...

As the decades passed, the GOP anointed itself as “the party of God”, specifically the Christian God. Through the Republican reinterpretation of scriptures, bigotry, racism, and other forms of intolerance became virtues of conservatism.

The poor, the elderly, disabled persons, non-whites, non-Christians, and liberals became the enemy of conservatism and the United States. This led the right wing to claim patriotism as being exclusively theirs. This misguided belief by conservatives has served the Republican Party, the super-rich, and Big Business well for the past five decades....

The Republican Party slowly sculpted conservatism into a political tool to serve the needs of our nation’s billionaires, while at the same time giving the issues important to their rank-and-file voting base little more than empty promises during election years. It is only the Congressional Republicans’ devotion to making Obama a one-term President that has motivated the relatively recent action to outlaw abortion, limit women’s rights, prevent same-sex marriage, and reverse over half-a-century’s progress on race relations.

Had the GOP not spent so many years instilling their loyal voters with the “virtues” mentioned above, Donald Trump’s hate filled bombast would not be drawing stadiums full of cheering conservatives....

The RNC should quit fighting Trump. He’s shown them how hate speech is embraced by the vast majority of the Republican voting base. ...

Gotta love election years; every partisan crackpot with a half-baked self-serving narrative shows up to "explain" the causes of something they have yet to prove. And it certainty helps their political fantasy life when they are sloppy with terms, invoke old stereotypes, and can't tell the difference between the Republican Party and the conservatism (or populism for that matter).

Party demographics don't change because anyone tells them to change; in a two party system they change because of shifting demographics, generational culture, economic events, and exogenous great political events (e.g. major wars, communism, etc.). Kevin Philips, a political demographer, rightly forecast changes that could make Republicans a majority (eventually resulting in the high water mark of 1994 and the first Republican Congress in many decades). And, by the way, in the 1990s he predicted an emerging democratic majority also based on demographics.

There were several reasons for republican rise till the mid 1990s, among them a) the emergence of a working class whose prosperity made them middle class b) the rise of the suburbs c) the decline of unions due to foreign competition and d) the rise of the new south.

At the same time the disintegration of the FDR coalition of southern democrats and shift in working class loyalty harmed the Democrats. The perception of Democrats as west and east coast culture elites further harmed their coalition.

The generational changes to the ideological basis of the Democratic party worked to undermine their emphasis on class identity. Suddenly gender and race displaced old divisions into new ones over identity - with new victims and groups. Since 1994 other demographics from waves of immigration, single motherhood, educational acculturation by the left, urbanization, rural decline, and the decline of communism as a threat has shifted in Democratic favor.

The Trump phenom has nothing to with prattle about billionaires, it has to do with a backlash of lower class whites resentful of their economic and cultural dislocation - and there feeling that both parties have used them. Like everyone they have seen rising inequality, and resent the elite cultures that diminishes them because of their race and modest education. They are a lost cohort of populists; the same folks that supported Perot, George Wallace, Huey Long...and many others.

Trumpolini is their charismatic leader who promises hyper nationalism, protectionism, a strong military, and plain talking political incorrectness.

Its no wonder that New Hampshire Trump voters often said their second choice was Sanders; this group is really angry and ready to burn the house down.

 

[Hawkeye10]

Gotta love election years; every partisan crackpot with a half-baked self-serving narrative shows up to "explain" the causes of something they have yet to prove. And it certainty helps their political fantasy life when they are sloppy with terms, invoke old stereotypes, and can't tell the difference between the Republican Party and the conservatism (or populism for that matter).

Party demographics don't change because anyone tells them to change; in a two party system they change because of shifting demographics, generational culture, economic events, and exogenous great political events (e.g. major wars, communism, etc.). Kevin Philips, a political demographer, rightly forecast changes that could make Republicans a majority (eventually resulting in the high water mark of 1994 and the first Republican Congress in many decades). And, by the way, in the 1990s he predicted an emerging democratic majority also based on demographics.

There were several reasons for republican rise till the mid 1990s, among them a) the emergence of a working class whose prosperity made them middle class b) the rise of the suburbs c) the decline of unions due to foreign competition and d) the rise of the new south.

At the same time the disintegration of the FDR coalition of southern democrats and shift in working class loyalty harmed the Democrats. The perception of Democrats as west and east coast culture elites further harmed their coalition.

The generational changes to the ideological basis of the Democratic party worked to undermine their emphasis on class identity. Suddenly gender and race displaced old divisions into new ones over identity - with new victims and groups. Since 1994 other demographics from waves of immigration, single motherhood, educational acculturation by the left, urbanization, rural decline, and the decline of communism as a threat has shifted in Democratic favor.

The Trump phenom has nothing to with prattle about billionaires, it has to do with a backlash of lower class whites resentful of their economic and cultural dislocation - and there feeling that both parties have used them. Like everyone they have seen rising inequality, and resent the elite cultures that diminishes them because of their race and modest education. They are a lost cohort of populists; the same folks that supported Perot, George Wallace, Huey Long...and many others.

Trumpolini is their charismatic leader who promises hyper nationalism, protectionism, a strong military, and plain talking political incorrectness.

Its no wonder that New Hampshire Trump voters often said their second choice was Sanders; this group is really angry and ready to burn the house down.

I said set up the guillotines rather than burn the house down in a post about an hour ago, but ya, you get the gist.

I remember too a quote from Bernie from NH to the effect "my peers in washington have no clue how pissed off these people are!"

 

[maxparrish]

I said set up the guillotines rather than burn the house down in a post about an hour ago, but ya, you get the gist.

Thanks. But in all candor, as much as I sympathize with the justifiable grievances of Trump supporters, I would never vote for Trump. As a conservative I find him unacceptable, dangerous, and potentially a political disaster.

Another Jessie Ventura is not a solution.

 

[Hawkeye10]

Thanks. But in all candor, as much as I sympathize with the justifiable grievances of Trump supporters, I would never vote for Trump. As a conservative I find him unacceptable, dangerous, and potentially a political disaster.

Another Jessie Ventura is not a solution.

Thanks. But in all candor I am not one of those guys who needs to agree with every single thing people say to talk to them.

I like smart people whether they agree with me or not.

That was a good post.