The GOP—Taking Pride in Stupidity? Say It Ain’t So…

It seems quite obvious that there is something endearing to listening to one with whom we could see ourselves having dinner or grabbing a drink; however, it seems as though there could be a limit to this. I don’t expect this blog posting will be written before we hear out of the GOP the words “Joe6Pack” or “HockeyMom.” That’s unfortunate. For the sake of likeability, in the past eight years, the GOP has nominated tickets with the intellectually incurious.*

I recently saw an article, which stated that this began with Dan Quayle, but I think its roots are farther reaching than that. Let’s backup a minute. Right now, we can say that appealing to “Joe6Pack” or “HockeyMoms” is similar to trying to being a populist. “Populism,” for the GOP to continue down this road takes a great deal of chutzpah. This is quite something for a party that has provided for the largest and most disparate gap of wealth in recent history. One could reduce this to “what’s the matter with Kansas” thinking.

Ultimately, where this finds its roots is with the 1968 Republican Convention and its nomination, where Richard M. Nixon and Kevin Phillips successfully devised his “Sothern Strategy.” In a 1970 New York Times article, Phillips said:

“From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don't need any more than that... but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats” (Boyd, James (May 17, 1970). "Nixon's Southern strategy: 'It's All in the Charts'", The New York Times, pp. 215.)

This was the strategy of the GOP back in the 1970’s, and it’s what then worked well for them. Since, the Democrats have only been able to successfully elect two Presidents, both of whom were from the South.

I would argue, thus far, the Southern Democrats have been the exception, largely because aesthetically they relate best to those the GOP began to attract as its stronger base following the 1970’s Southern Strategy. The continuation of the Seventies’ Southern Strategy was the “Reagan Democrats” in the 1980’s. At that point, due to both the Soviet Union’s menace and a bad economy from Carter’s term, Reagan was able to successfully appeal to blue-collar union folks. Due to escalating the Cold War, Reagan made himself the only option come 1984, as we were then ruled by the politics of fear. Ironically, one could cite the same strategy in 2004—fascinating.

I digress—apologies. Right now, we’ve witnessed two Republican administrations in the past thirty years utilizing the remnants of the “Southern Strategy,” by utilizing populism with a twofold attack.
Quite simply, the Republican Attack can be reduced in two components: One, attack the opponent’s character, highlighting a perceived disconnection with values of the larger portion of the population; two, demonstrate and embellish fear of that opponent’s capabilities against enemies of the United States.

Over the past twenty years, they did this by appealing to the wedge issues around abortion, social welfare, marital infidelity, and the Middle East. When Democrats—Bill Clinton, won, they did so because the economy hits bottom following long Republican terms in office; moreover, there is a reduced air of insecurity, which allows voters to focus on the economy. In this case, following the Bush Administration’s atrocious eight years of office, we have the former, and the latter’s strategy has been massive enough to call that component into question as well.

Quite simply, with John McCain (security) and Sarah Palin (“value”-identification/photogenic), right now, are in front of us. As such, with Palin’s limits to values/photogenic appeal being transparent, in the face of her Bush-like incompetence, even the Reagan Republican Swing Voters know better. Of course, this is why McCain’s ticket’s numbers are as low as they are. Ergo, we are going to see a blitz of character assassination in the coming weeks, which will be the only thing their party’s horrible platform can conjure. It’s unfortunate that we have to suffer. Fortunately, it’s been so transparent leaving Bush and Cheney in office for this length of time.

I have one last favor to ask: please when receiving forwards about the candidates, go to http://www.snopes.com/. Even for McCain-Palin, please go to the website. It’s non-partisan. It simply exists to provide dimensions of truth to the Internet and forwards.







*One could take that even further, and mention Dan Quayle, but for the sake of brevity, I thought I’d keep it to this millennium.