Saturday, October 17, 2015

Is The Republican Turmoil In Congress The Final Failure Of Nixon's Southern Strategy?

I want to share a recent article by William Greider analyzing the Republican paralysis in the House of Representatives: GOP

I am not as optimistic as Greider that this represents a "final unraveling."  I do agree that the growing influence in the House of Republicans who have no interest in actually governing and solving problems is a reflection of the inherent tensions within the GOP created by the shotgun marriage between white supremacist former Democrats and Country Club Republicans.

Greider's take: "So what caused the current rebellion in the GOP ranks? It finally dawned on loyal foot soldiers in the odd-couple coalition that they were being taken for suckers. Their causes always seemed to get the short end of the stick. The GOP made multiple promises and fervent speeches on the social issues, but, for one reason or another, the party establishment always failed to deliver.
“We told people Obama was a dangerous socialist"…one Republican lobbyist explained,  "when really we knew he was a moderate. But they believed us.”
"This belated realization stirred the anger that has flared across the ranks of the followers — and not just in the South. The financial crisis, the bailout of the banks, and collapsing prosperity intensified their sense of betrayal. People began mobilizing their own rump-group politics to push back. The tea party protests were aimed at President Obama, of course, but they were also an assault on Republican leaders who had misled and used the party base for so long. Tea party revenge took down long-comfortable legislators and elected red-hot replacements who share the spirit of rebellion."

This started to come to a head in 2010 when Republicans elected 30 candidates to the House of Representatives who had never been elected to any office at any level of government.

The same thing happened at the state level. North Carolina is a case in point.

The General Assembly passed draconian changes to election law designed to suppress voting by African Americans and other minorities, to discourage young people from voting, and to make it harder for women to register and vote. (Women keep changing their last names. How do we know who they really are?) This all served as cover for equally draconian changes to the tax code to the benefit of wealthy North Carolinians and to the detriment of people who actually work for a living.

How long will it take for our local Tea Party types to figure out that they are being duped again?

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