Unless you’ve been cut off from all human contact in the backwoods of Maine for the past 6 or 8 months, you know exactly what I’m talking about: the Republican party’s freak show of a primary process, complete with debates that are little more the than potty-mouthed insult-laden shouting matches better befitting a bunch of 6 year-olds. And they’re not even very creative. If the best they can do is shout over each other, resort to ad-hominem attacks and spew absurd platitudes (“When I’m president it’s gonna be GREAT. All my policies are the BEST. You’ll see”), there’s a serious problem. So far, I’ve seen no workable policy proposals (other than the elimination of everything Obama has accomplished in the last 8 years), let alone a serious policy debate. And the latest nonsense is that Trump is going to get the Mexican government to pay for his absurd wall on our border with Mexico by twisting their arm. Or something equally as juvenile.
The last debate would have been hilarious, if it wasn’t part of the process of selecting a candidate for the most powerful job in the world. This person will literally have the capacity to destroy civilization and send the few human survivors back to the stone age, and they’re calling each other names and comparing dick size.
In the run-up to the actual primary process, the conventional wisdom was that it would be Jeb Bush vs Hillary Clinton. On the Republican side, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and a whole bunch of others were expected to make it interesting, and for the Democrats is always Hillary’s to lose, but at the end of the day it was widely expected to be a contest between the two party Brahmins. As it turned out, Bernie Sanders has made a surprisingly strong showing against Clinton, while virtually everyone on the Republican side has been stunned by Trump’s dominance. He was expected to self-immolate very early on, but the more outrageous and hate-filled things that come out of his mouth the better his followers like it. He’s even said they are so loyal he could shoot someone in the middle of Time Square and they’d still vote for him. I don’t know which is scarier: the disregard he has for his own followers’ critical thinking skills, or the fact that he was probably correct.
Anyhow, it was Jeb who never got off the ground, and it currently looks like the Republican nomination is Trump’s to lose. So the leaders of the Republican Party are throwing everything they have at Trump to try to prevent that from happening. They see that he represents the loss of the control of the party, and that terrifies them.
Of course the proximal cause is Trump’s ascendancy and apparently clear path to the Republican nomination, but as I imply, that’s just the most visible. I think this started following the shellacking they got with Barry Goldwater in the presidential election of 1964 when the Republican party wonks realized that they had to expand their constituency to have a hope of winning (let alone keeping) the White House and Congress in the future. They did the simple math that revealed that there were more Democrats than Republicans and that was only going to become more pronounced as the demographics of the country shifted. They were going to have to somehow expand their appeal from their current base of white (predominately male), wealthy upper and middle class voters in order to keep from being forever marginalized.
So they sold their souls to the Devil.
Or more accurately, to the Fundamental Christians. To appeal to them, they decided to emphasize what their focus groups told them were hot buttons for this group, so they positioned themselves as the party that would protect people from the Godless Communist hordes (strong on national defense), the criminal drug-users (strong on crime) and the destruction of the American family (anti-abortion, pro-traditional family with Dad as the breadwinner head of the house and Mom in a stay-at-home supportive role). With the exception of that last, it wasn’t much of a stretch from earlier positions; and as I think about it even the pro-traditional family stance was really just finding a parade to march in front of. After all, who would be opposed to a strong family? But in order to make that work, they had to make it appear that they were most closely aligned with that demographic; no little feat when their party was predominately rich, white and male, and their target was working class, less educated, and both men and women. The only commonality up until then was race. S0 they needed to stir up fear and create a siege mentality by saying that family values and Christianity were (and are) under attack. From whom or what is never clearly stated, except a vague “elitist secular agenda,” whatever that means. We are constantly reminded that “This country was founded on Christianity and the Bible!” and of course this is exactly wrong; the Founding Fathers may have incorporated Christian principles into the Bill of Rights, but they specifically and painstakingly avoided an official religion, be it one of the many branches of Christianity or any other, monotheistic or polytheistic. The Treaty of Tripoli (penned in 1796, ratified by Congress and signed by President John Adams) goes so far as to explicitly state that “The Government of the United States of America is not, in any, sense founded on the Christian religion” (Article 11). Not sure how it could have been stated more plainly.
The irony is of course lost on the Wing Nuts out there when they trumpet our “Christian Constitutional Foundation.”
Anyhow, back to our Republican decision 50 some-odd years ago and the implosion of today. So they stirred up the evangelicals, got them to vote reliably Republican with nonsense about an attack on Christian Values from some unnamed “elitist” group and used their votes to stay in power. We’ve had Reagan, two Bush’s with a Gingrich-led rebellion in between, and now Ted Cruz. Today a person running under the Republican ticket has no hope unless they declare themselves unequivocally anti-abortion, pro-gun and pro Christ Jesus.
The problem is that the Republicans wonks post-Goldwater never really wanted the party to become so socially conservative. True, most Americans (myself among them) are not pro-abortion. I think life is precious and should be treated as such. But I’m MUCH more opposed to being told by a politician when life begins, or what my wife and I can or cannot do in what is at its core a profoundly personal decision. Those guys 50-plus years ago wanted the votes that would allow them to get elected, but wanted to keep the party the way it was: fiscally conservative, favoring (and run by) wealthy, nearly all white, old men.
They are horrified by Trump and the fact that he’s taken over the party. And Ted Cruz would be just as bad, from their perspective; he’s known for his refusal to compromise on anything, even within his own party. Lindsey Graham said that the Trump/Cruz choice is like deciding whether you’d rather be shot or poisoned. That’s why we saw Mitt Romney being trotted out to bash Trump. Not because they want Cruz to win, but almost anyone would be better than Trump.
Except, of course Hillary. Or Bernie. Either way, it’s a disaster for the Republican Establishment. But they brought it on themselves.
Be careful what you wish for.
We’re watching a political party implode.
The last debate would have been hilarious, if it wasn’t part of the process of selecting a candidate for the most powerful job in the world. This person will literally have the capacity to destroy civilization and send the few human survivors back to the stone age, and they’re calling each other names and comparing dick size.
In the run-up to the actual primary process, the conventional wisdom was that it would be Jeb Bush vs Hillary Clinton. On the Republican side, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and a whole bunch of others were expected to make it interesting, and for the Democrats is always Hillary’s to lose, but at the end of the day it was widely expected to be a contest between the two party Brahmins. As it turned out, Bernie Sanders has made a surprisingly strong showing against Clinton, while virtually everyone on the Republican side has been stunned by Trump’s dominance. He was expected to self-immolate very early on, but the more outrageous and hate-filled things that come out of his mouth the better his followers like it. He’s even said they are so loyal he could shoot someone in the middle of Time Square and they’d still vote for him. I don’t know which is scarier: the disregard he has for his own followers’ critical thinking skills, or the fact that he was probably correct.
Anyhow, it was Jeb who never got off the ground, and it currently looks like the Republican nomination is Trump’s to lose. So the leaders of the Republican Party are throwing everything they have at Trump to try to prevent that from happening. They see that he represents the loss of the control of the party, and that terrifies them.
Of course the proximal cause is Trump’s ascendancy and apparently clear path to the Republican nomination, but as I imply, that’s just the most visible. I think this started following the shellacking they got with Barry Goldwater in the presidential election of 1964 when the Republican party wonks realized that they had to expand their constituency to have a hope of winning (let alone keeping) the White House and Congress in the future. They did the simple math that revealed that there were more Democrats than Republicans and that was only going to become more pronounced as the demographics of the country shifted. They were going to have to somehow expand their appeal from their current base of white (predominately male), wealthy upper and middle class voters in order to keep from being forever marginalized.
So they sold their souls to the Devil.
Or more accurately, to the Fundamental Christians. To appeal to them, they decided to emphasize what their focus groups told them were hot buttons for this group, so they positioned themselves as the party that would protect people from the Godless Communist hordes (strong on national defense), the criminal drug-users (strong on crime) and the destruction of the American family (anti-abortion, pro-traditional family with Dad as the breadwinner head of the house and Mom in a stay-at-home supportive role). With the exception of that last, it wasn’t much of a stretch from earlier positions; and as I think about it even the pro-traditional family stance was really just finding a parade to march in front of. After all, who would be opposed to a strong family? But in order to make that work, they had to make it appear that they were most closely aligned with that demographic; no little feat when their party was predominately rich, white and male, and their target was working class, less educated, and both men and women. The only commonality up until then was race. S0 they needed to stir up fear and create a siege mentality by saying that family values and Christianity were (and are) under attack. From whom or what is never clearly stated, except a vague “elitist secular agenda,” whatever that means. We are constantly reminded that “This country was founded on Christianity and the Bible!” and of course this is exactly wrong; the Founding Fathers may have incorporated Christian principles into the Bill of Rights, but they specifically and painstakingly avoided an official religion, be it one of the many branches of Christianity or any other, monotheistic or polytheistic. The Treaty of Tripoli (penned in 1796, ratified by Congress and signed by President John Adams) goes so far as to explicitly state that “The Government of the United States of America is not, in any, sense founded on the Christian religion” (Article 11). Not sure how it could have been stated more plainly.
The irony is of course lost on the Wing Nuts out there when they trumpet our “Christian Constitutional Foundation.”
Anyhow, back to our Republican decision 50 some-odd years ago and the implosion of today. So they stirred up the evangelicals, got them to vote reliably Republican with nonsense about an attack on Christian Values from some unnamed “elitist” group and used their votes to stay in power. We’ve had Reagan, two Bush’s with a Gingrich-led rebellion in between, and now Ted Cruz. Today a person running under the Republican ticket has no hope unless they declare themselves unequivocally anti-abortion, pro-gun and pro Christ Jesus.
The problem is that the Republicans wonks post-Goldwater never really wanted the party to become so socially conservative. True, most Americans (myself among them) are not pro-abortion. I think life is precious and should be treated as such. But I’m MUCH more opposed to being told by a politician when life begins, or what my wife and I can or cannot do in what is at its core a profoundly personal decision. Those guys 50-plus years ago wanted the votes that would allow them to get elected, but wanted to keep the party the way it was: fiscally conservative, favoring (and run by) wealthy, nearly all white, old men.
They are horrified by Trump and the fact that he’s taken over the party. And Ted Cruz would be just as bad, from their perspective; he’s known for his refusal to compromise on anything, even within his own party. Lindsey Graham said that the Trump/Cruz choice is like deciding whether you’d rather be shot or poisoned. That’s why we saw Mitt Romney being trotted out to bash Trump. Not because they want Cruz to win, but almost anyone would be better than Trump.
Except, of course Hillary. Or Bernie. Either way, it’s a disaster for the Republican Establishment. But they brought it on themselves.
Be careful what you wish for.
About BigBill
Stats: Married male boomer. Hobbies: Hiking, woodworking, reading, philosophy, good conversation.