Discussion for article #235791
People will forget unless something happens right before election day.
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Ed are you saying black people shouldn’t protest because if they do they might rile up their withe masters to vote Republican? As near as I can tell the “backlash voters” who might be riled up are already Fox News viewers and they are already riled up. They are the people who lead the Republicans to victory in 2014. Their numbers aren’t going to grow.
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The (racist) “backlash” voter has been present throughout U.S. history.
Those who are not seem to disappear during off year elections, which decide the make-up of the United States Congress, state governments and a host of other local officials which decide the quality of life for all of us.
Paradoxically, those voter-ghosts are the ones who SHOULD have a “backlash” mentality.
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Yep, what later became known as “Reagan Democrats” are a variation on the theme.
I lived in NJ during the 1968 presidential election.
George Wallace – yes, that George Wallace – got the NJ electoral vote.
It was a backlash against anti poverty programs that blue collar voters believed favored only blacks. One would hear over and over: "Them ni**ers is gettin’ too damned much fer nuthin’ "
Now in 1968 Nixon would have won anyway, but the results in a typically Dem state like NJ foreshadowed Reagan’s appeal to this backlash: “Young buck selling his food stamps to buy drugs”.
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I don’t think there’s going to be any more of a backlash effect than there predictably could be. If anything, I think social media has tilted the scales in favor of visability of police brutality and their targets in the minority community. I’m old enough to remember watching the riots on TV in the 60’s and 70’s. The narrative was subtly of out of control n*ggers against a valiant White police force. That narrative currently thrives where it already existed and there’s plenty of pushback on it from certain areas.
In addition to that idea that, urban living is really predominant right now amongst the left wing. This includes minorities, younger people, affluent White people, gays etc. Suburban/exurban living has become the area of the right wing and it’s become smaller. It’s their last refuge. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist; I’m saying it doesn’t dominate social ideas in America the way it did in the 60’s and 70’s.
If O’Malley were smart and I think he is, he’d jump on this quickly and with both hands. This could be but one issue that could really distinguish him from HRC depending upon how he shapes his allegiances.
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Unfortunately for O’Malley, he is knee deep in this mess. His support for zero tolerance policing policies, which he proudly heralded while Governor of Maryland, contributed to this mess. It will make it difficult to separate himself from it.
I think O’Malley is done, which is a shame, he would have made a good candidate, at least for VP. Hillary is not going to go near him with a 10 foot poll now.
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Since the " Walking Dead" airs on AMC I don’t think there will be too many special news bulletin interruptions and 50 years ago people didn’t have the ability to video record police abuse on their cell phones that they could then upload to YouTube to be watched by millions.
I may be wrong but I think advances in media and communications technology since the late sixties may change the equation a little.
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“Law and order” is a recurring theme in political campaigns around the world. Supporters of “law and order” argue that effective deterrence combined with incarceration is the most effective means of crime prevention. Opponents of “law and order” argue that a system of harsh criminal punishment is ultimately ineffective because it does not address underlying or systemic causes of crime.
Significant “law and order” politicians:
- Adolf Hitler
- Benito Mussolini (he also made the trains run on time)
- Richard M. Nixon
- Spiro T. Agnew
- Barry Goldwater
- Ronald Reagan
- Margaret Thatcher
- Rudolph Giuliani
- Joe Arpaio
As we approach the 45th anniversary of the Kent State Massacre (Richard Nixon, President) it is well to reflect on the benefits that “law and order” has brought to the US:
- The largest prison population in the world in absolute numbers. However, it does have only the second-highest incarceration rate, that honor going to Seychelles.
- Private, for-profit prisons to handle the overflow of prisoners that the state is unable to deal with (brought to you by Ronald Reagan).
- Mandatory sentencing to ensure that the private, for-profit prisons continue to be profitable.
- A disproportionate percentage of ethnic and racial minorities incarcerated.
When politicians start pushing the “law and order” meme, just think of them as saying, “Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?”
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Mostly it scares old white people who live nowhere near urban areas but are terrified by images on their TV. They will vote Republican anyway.
I live in a working class neighborhood and I have neighbors who refuse to travel 10 miles into downtown because ‘those people’ are dangerous. A nice irony is that the near-in neighborhood where ‘those people’ lived for 80 years has been gentrified and now ‘those people’ are moving in next door. The economy is such that folks here can’t afford to move, so there is an opportunity for dialogue. But I’m not holding my breath.
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What absolute bullshit. Protest has nothing to do with rioting to steal TVs and TPs. These thugs who are throwing bricks at cops are not protesting. They are there to steal stuff.
Just the latest manifestation of the continuing Republican delusion that the GOP can win the presidency by capturing a larger percentage of the white vote in deep Red states they would win regardless.
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“Deep red states” now include WI, MI.
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Well, I disagree on that. Most every state has some version of zero tolerance so to single him out is pretty ludicrous. There was no way a politician, right or left, could run on anything but a zero tolerance of lawlessness. He was not the cause of what’s happening now so “separating” himself from it isn’t quite as difficult IF he’s willing to speak to the truth of the matter. Your girl HRC just came out with a generic law and order speech; he can do it too being from there and all.
By the way, how the hell could be be “done” when he hasn’t announced yet and very few people in
America even know of him?
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The problem with this article is it ignores the fact that the LA riots occurred about the same time in 1992 which was a Presidential election year and had no impact on the Dems ability to win the election. The tragic events in Baltimore have occurred literally 18 months before the next election. If this becomes a pattern of rolling riots like what happened in the late 1960s then it has the potential to be a 2016 campaign issue. However, if it is limited to Baltimore then I think it will recede into the campaign background quickly.
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Nope. Just two more purple in the midterms and blue in presidential race year states where Democrats are packed into urban areas, and thus screwed out of House seats, and somehow just can’t be bothered to get off their fucking asses and vote in midterms anyway. Republicans haven’t won Wisconsin’s electoral votes since 1980. They haven’t won Michigan’s since 1988. Nothing that’s happened demographically in either state has changed that and, so far, at least, there hasn’t been sufficiently effective vote suppression to make a difference.
In North Carolina, a state that went from deep red to deep purple in eight years, the voter suppression could make all the difference in '16. These two, I’m not seeing it.
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Thank you for this. I live in but one of the most hyper gentrified areas of America and believe me, the images shown on tv and social media are NOT going to cause mass White flight as the in the '60’s. The urban areas have really morphed into something quite different from what they were years ago. The country is very, very divided on certain lines (social, political etc) and it’s hardened into stone.
As the urban areas become more attractive for certain people, they’ve also gotten REALLY expensive, as you say. There’s no discussion happening between those who were here and those who just got here; we just live our separate lives and hope the next generation can do better.
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Artfully said. I learn so much every day on this site. My area of study is Latin American history (19th Century) and I have tried valiantly to incorporate my layman’s impression on what confronts us. The only professional opinion I have been able to really offer, to date, is that Latin America’s democratic challenges are far greater than they are here, the resources for dealing with them smaller.
If anything, this points to a perverse “admiration” (actually, head-scratching awe) of
The Oligarchs
Their Action Group (The Republican Party)
Their Communications Directorate (the MSM)
as they continue on their Merry Way in making the U.S. more like Latin America
It’s become pretty clear in recent years that many urban areas are Democratically held. We win based on our side getting out and voting and that’s in the urban areas. I don’t necessarily see it as a new campaign issue; the division’s been there for a while and what’s happened recently (Ferguson, Baltimore, Black lives matter, etc.) serves to show up the dividing lines of Right v. Left.
You want to talk bullshit, there have been peaceful protests in Baltimore since mid April. The media didn’t get serious about reporting the Gray arrest until the rioting occurred. You wouldn’t know it Nick but the peaceful protesters far out number the rioters. If you watch CNN, Fox and even MSNBC everybody involved is a “thug” which, as a local Baltimore politician pointed out, is cable news speak for “ni**er.” Except for the producers at the cable networks nobody really wants rioting.
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