Actually, it is rather too friendly to call what grips the GOP an “ideology.” What drives the GOP in the south is nothing so fine as a carefully wrought superstructure of philosophy and world views. The GOP is, at its core, driven by pure, unadulterated, from the gut, tribalist racism - a visceral dislike of Black people and an emotional nonstalgia for a world that vanished about 150 years ago. Ideology indeed. You give them too much credit.
9 Likes
The time to play pitty pat is over. Start saying things out loud: “the President’s race is the biggest factor in the GOP’s opposition to him”. Just say it. It’s not like the GOP haven’t made likewise controversial statements, this has the added benefit of being true. Political discourse has become crazy inappropriate thanx to the GOP, take advantage and throw some read meat out there, force CNN to run segments like, “Is the GOP racist?”.
4 Likes
Clearly McDaniel should have used Polonium-238 during the campaign…
Never happen. CNN would run segments like, “Are Democrats playing the race card?”
2 Likes
Um, outside of rantings from the McDaniel’s campaign, hasn’t there been ZERO evidence so far that a tide of black Democratic voters decided to turn out for Cochran just to spite McDaniel?
This always seemed like the kookiest move Democrats could adopt. Demos would want to put wingnut unethical McDaniel on the GOP ticket and watch anyone with any moderate leanings all tilt to the D side.
2 Likes
When whites vote their self-interest, it’s just voting. When African Americans vote their self-interest its a form of theft from whites. White Mississippi farmers get so much in the way of agricultural subsidies (and that’s just a slice of what Mississippi gets), it really is outrageous that they could even begin to think this way.
6 Likes
Actually, I’m increasingly of the opinion that Mississippi is a test bed for their 2016 Presidential campaign strategy. Run the usual wing-nut on the ticket alongside the far-right establishment Republican. Then, when the establishment Republican narrowly wins with all the accompanying howling from the rabid Tea Party base, the Rs run their far-right candidate as a moderate. “See, he’s not a wing-nut, therefore he must be a moderate.”
Think about how often the media have touted McCain or Christy as ‘moderates’ in the last 4+ years, simply because they weren’t completely irrational knuckle-draggers.
2 Likes
Cochran won the runoff. McDaniel isn’t on the ballot. He might run as an Independent and I hope he does. Mississippi’s overt racists need a neo-confederate talk show host senate candidate. I am sure he will get all of his tea party supporters to vote for him.
signed: Travis Childers
2 Likes
I wouldn’t entirely say that. In Mississippi it has that extra veneer of racism due to the history of the state and the racial polarization of the electorate. But much of what’s said in the next to last paragraph is exactly how today’s Republicans look at everyone who doesn’t vote for them, including in mostly-white states - e.g. women, non-fundamentalists, anyone with some kind of education, etc. - it’s the voters who are the problem and need to be converted to conservative true believers, rather than convinced of their merits.
5 Likes
What I’d really like to see is the following test, which should determine once and for all the degree to which racism drives the republicans: Nominate a black republican for president. If they are driven by ideology, s/he does as well as Romney. If they are driven by racism, he’ll do worse than Romney.
BTW, this is not an impressively long list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African-American_Republicans
3 Likes
Listening to all of the convoluted explanations and justifications this seems to be an all around sticky wicket for everyone. Whatever the warped perception is in the end, this one will go to the lawyers and good ole boys.
Responding to midnight_ramblermidnight_rambler
“I wouldn’t entirely say that. In Mississippi it has that extra veneer of racism due to the history of the state and the racial polarization of the electorate. But much of what’s said in the next to last paragraph is exactly how today’s Republicans look at everyone who doesn’t vote for them, including in mostly-white states - e.g. women, non-fundamentalists, anyone with some kind of education, etc. - it’s the voters who are the problem and need to be converted to conservative true believers, rather than convinced of their merits.”
I guess we differ on what comes first. The article concludes “ideology trumps all, and voters who don’t share it simply aren’t welcome.” Where you see a “veneer” of racism, I see “veneer” of ideology on a root, trunk and branch of racism - a racism so pervasive that those who live it may themselves be unable to voice the core source of their beliefs. I agree with the first two sentences of the last paragraph: “The idea that becoming more conservative is going to lift the prospects of Republicans among African-Americans is a complete hallucination. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say, reflecting Sojourner’s comments, that conservatives want African-Americans to change before they are worthy of outreach.”
But not with the next one:
“And in a place like Mississippi, that means the GOP will remain the White People’s Party perpetually fearing black encroachment on its White Primary by “corrupt” pols like Cochran who dare suggest that representing constituents is more important than maintaining pure conservative ideology.”
Yes it will remain the White People’s Party, out of that visceral fear based racism… but what they hate about Cochran is not a compromise of their “ideology” but the very idea of even a transient interest based coalition with the hated other, the Black people of Mississippi.
When Kilgore tries to represent the racist side as having an ideology (a set of ideas) that are threatened by Cochran, he is putting the cart before the horse. They have hatred that is aroused by Cochran’s actions, and they’d like you to believe (and maybe they’ve even convinced themselves) that it is about some set of “ideas”. Crediting them with having such ideas as the fundamental basis of their stance completely misses the real root, their vicious racism, and the secondary role that the ideas play in their world view.
1 Like
It would be hard for the modern Tea Party to be more 180-degrees opposite their historical namesake.
The Boston Tea Party was a gang of vandals dressed up in war paint and feather costumes, who vandalized the private property of a for-profit corporation, in protest of the special monopoly and tax privileges that corporation received from the British Crown. The modern Republican Tea Party is sponsored and financed by corporations and their billionaire owners, to protect and defend the privileges and interests of billionaires.
1 Like
I read a few years ago, after Cochran won his last term that he received 20 odd percent of the African-American vote. It’s not out of the question and now the data backs it up that African-Americans put him over the top in the runoff. If you have a choice between Ebola (McDaniel) and curable Cancer (Cochran) you go with the one that causes the least harm.