No. I do not think the Republican Party ‘truckles’ to the racists who now vote for it any more than the Democratic Party ‘truckles’ to the racists (black supremacists and anti-semites like the Nation of Islam) who vote for it.
I do not think that racists are an important part of the crowd under their ‘big tent’.
If it were, I don’t think that the Republican Party would be working so hard to court Hispanic and African-American votes, nor to highlight those minorities who are members of the party and the administration.
I think the Republicans don’t mind at all having more racists voting for them… and they certainly have a good number like Lott in their midst… but then they aren’t guilty just for being the political choice of the KKK trash… the same way Kerry wasn’t a commie because the American Communist Party was voting for him.
Agreed, but I suspect that may be changing on both sides.
I’m pretty sure libertarians are getting exponentially fed up with Republicans. My guess is we’ll see more of a split on the right with angered moderates and libertarians banding together to some degree as well.
With Howard Dean heading up the DNC, while Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer and others present a much more unified front on their principals in the Senate, we may also begin to see hard left independents coming on board.
And what does that say about the Republican party, and it’s position on the left v. right political spectrum?
Of course, IIRC, there are more extreme right-wing people than extreme left-wing people in the US.
And as Snag says, libertarians (not measured on the left v. right axis) are not happy with the current admin. If enough libertarians (regardless of left v. right leanings) make common cause with the leftists, they’ll tip the scale of the US left v. right spectrum. I believe this is what accounted for the Perot voters in the 1990’s.
Damn time zones - this was mostly one of the more fascinating debates on GD that I have seen in some time, and I got in too late! :mad:
One trend I find quite reassuring is that the movement away from the dissent = treason meme so common during the election cycle. I also find it reassuring that the media and the representative bodies (House and Senate) seems to have found their power again to question the Administration on policy and execution of government. For that is part of their mission, and I was shocked and horrified when it didn’t happen.
I also feel that the military is not supreme in our culture; whilst ordinary citizens are supporting the troops almost unconditionally, recruiting into the various armed forces (as well as reserves and national guards) are at all-time lows. The Public is voicing their support for the military, but ‘voting with their feet’ as it were and not supporting it personally.
Some of the themes brought up in the OP are occurring, to my mind, but not these.
I agree that its nice that the media got some balls back… but unfortunately so have the democrats… and I think they are playing the spoil sport role to their loss.
Anyone notice the recent “AQ is going to attack soon” news ? Seems a new injection of fear mongering…
I wonder. Again, I have to admit I’m no longer a avid news-junkie, so I only get a pastiche of current events. At any rate, I associate “treason” with military action. Charges of such – ok, ok, let’s say “sentiment” instead – were going strong since the Iraqi conflict began, not just limited to the election cycle. While it does feel like it has died down a bit, perhaps that’s simply due to a sort of acceptance of the war combined with, as you note, the end of the last election cycle? My point being – should the war drums start beating again, won’t the rhetoric get dialed up again? Or what about an attack on US soil (cf. SentientMeat’s thread on “bombing in 2005”). Has the meme really gone away to some extent, or is there just no reason for its expression?
An interesting point, that. What if they started a war on foreign soil and nobody came? Huh.
Although, at the same time, I think it’s important to note that it is not necessarily the military that is responsible for a rise in authoritarianism, though it’s one thing to examine. In my mind, that’s more indicative of foreign involvement, which is only half of the story. On the domestic front, it’d be police enforcement/curtailing of civil liberties. It certainly feels to me like there’s a rise in that sentiment (e.g., acceptance of “Homeland Security” measures, first amendment issues like “decency in the media” or the poll of high-schoolers who say there’s too much freedom of speech, search and seizure abuses such as loosening the need for warrants or broadening of who qualifies as a “terrorist”, detainment without charges, etc.). Is an examination of the military’s role sufficient for judging the mood of the day? If not, what about the rest of it?
Minarik, the chairman of the New York Republican Party said that “the Democrats simply have refused to learn the lessons of the past two election cycles, and now they can be accurately called the party of Barbara Boxer, Lynne Stewart and Howard Dean.”
Lynne Stewart, convicted last week of aiding terrorists…
That meme is alive and well, and just looking to rear its ugly head again.
You’re not cynical enough, John. The white racists *are * part of the GOP crowd, and in enough quantities to tip an election, as we know. You can claim GOP moral equivalence (there we go again with that) to black racists if you want, but then you’ll have to compare numbers and cite the black racists’ support for Democrats if you want to maintain that position. Do you? *Can * you?
You’re also mistaken in asserting that a faction has to support all of a party’s positions on any subject or else they wouldn’t want to join it at all. You should know that isn’t how it works here - both major parties are coalitions of disparate groups who use each other to get at least part of what they want. The religious right is willing to use the GOP as a flag of convenience and can stomach the racists as long as they get their votes and don’t have to do much for them, and the racists can stomach the McCarthyites who can stomach the libertarians etc. All that matters is that they vote for you and that requires that you vote for them when you have to.
I believe not; the military is indicative of our society, not ruling it; therfore the role of the military doesn’t really apply here.
What I am talking about is the parallels to Weimar and to Nazi Germany. People clap for servicemen and -women in airports, give up their seats on planes, and have yellow stickers on their SUVs. But they don’t encourage their kids to join up, if recruiting is any indicator. I believe that this does show the reality of the situation vis a vis the military’s supremacy in popular culture.
I should also have pointed out that the GOP’s apparent courting of minorities (ref. Negro Night at the Convention in 2000, a particularly tasteless episode) has every appearance of simple window-dressing. The leadership certainly knows their embrace of the white racist faction alienates enough people to cost them elections. They also know that the black and Hispanic population is growing faster than the white population, and that at some point they’ll have to put the legacy of the Southern Strategy behind them. There is no evidence of a single ounce of sincerity among the leadership in any of it, although there are certainly members of the other factions in the party who deplore it and would like it to go away (but keep the votes). There are also those, on this board even, who so strongly wish it wasn’t true that they deny it.
Sorry, I disagree. This isn’t systemic enough. This is one person, regardless of whether he’s in a position of leadership or not, who said something regretable. It’s not the over-the-top screaming of ‘traitor’ against any dissent that we had 6 months or more ago, and it’s not coming from enough sources.
They might yet. But even calm persons, *especially * calm persons, know where their votes come from. The liberals=traitors meme actually works better if it is insinuated rather than screamed, anyway.
Lest we forget, it was most recently popularized by Gingrich’s 1996 GOPAC memo, Language: A Key Mechanism of Control", written by the GOP’s elected Speaker to help others win, too:
