Tuesday, October 29, 2013

GOP Still Worried About "Those People"

Paul Krugman

Lots of commentators have been referencing a report from Democracy Corps about focus-group meetings with Republicans, and with good reason: Stanley Greenberg, the organization's co-founder, has basically provided a unified theory of the craziness that has enveloped American politics in the last few years.

What the report makes clear is that the current Republican obsession with attacking programs that benefit Americans in need, ranging from food stamps to health care reform, isn't about some philosophical commitment to small government. It's about anxiety over a changing America - the multiracial, multicultural society we're becoming - and anger that Democrats are taking Their Money and giving it to Those People. In other words, it's still race after all these years.

One irony here is that at this point it's the liberals who believe in America, while the conservatives don't (my em). I believe in our ability to change while retaining our essential nature; I believe that today's immigrants will be incorporated into the fabric of our society, just as Italian and Jewish immigrants - once regarded as fundamentally incompatible with American ways - became "white" by the middle of the 20th century.

Another irony is that the great right-wing fear that social insurance programs will in effect buy minority votes for Democrats, leading to further change, is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. The G.O.P. could have tried to reach out to immigrants, moderated its stances on Obamacare, and staked out a position as the restrained, sensible party. Instead, it's alienating all the people it needs to win over, and quite possibly setting the stage for the very liberal dominance it fears.
Good.

4 comments:

montag said...

We are fervently hoping for that liberal dominance the GOP is working to create.

WhyNot said...

Very interesting, thanks for the insight. Actually, in the blogosphere, I have systematically found America people to divide thus:

- Democrats: tolerant, reasonably smart on average, non-believers (in terms of religion)

- Repugnicans: intolerant, complete retarded dumbfucks, jesus-cock-sucking freaks. Also: warmongerers, jumpers-for-joy every time USA goes to war to invade another country or the CIA murders a non-US-approved head of state in some other country. The Bush/Cheney achievement of mass-murdering 4 million Iraqi civilians under false pretense and fabricated evidences was the absolute pinnacle of greatness achieved by USA, according to those cunts.

This is not only the conclusion I and billions of other non-US ppl have reached: the 2 years I lived in Florida further reinforced my observations.

if I were president of USA, I'd campaign to have Congress vote of a law to deport all Repugnicans and send them to Antartica; their intellects would match those of the penguins.

Then again, I'd feel sorry for the poor penguins, they certainly don't deserve that horrible inhumane treatment.

How about Abu Graib? Or Guantanamo?

Anonymous said...

What we call conservatism is really just fear. Fear of loss of power and privilege, money,status, etc. Fear kills empathy, especially for those who are seen as different. The big issues, guns and abortion, are about keeping people in their place. What are they afraid of, that they need all these guns? Do they think a horde of brown people and crazed hippies are going to invade the suburbs?
A typical Teahadist (I've known them all my life) thinks he is "free" because he has a shotgun in the pickup, but he's an indentured servant to his employer, because he probably has no savings and no healthcare if he quits. His suburban lifestyle would be over.
And the conservative elites fear and hate the idea that the poor rednecks might wake up and make common cause with "Those People", and the dirty hippies and demand a more humane society, because it would end their political power. So we get fear, hate, guns and religion instead of sane and humane policies.
Fear is the mind killer, (stolen from "Dune") for sure. It's also the people killer.

Gordon said...

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." FDR didn't have to deal with today's right wing.