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What has been really upsetting to me this election cycle has been the overt insults from the white right toward everyone else. The dependent classes, the takers vs. the makers, the 47%, government aparach etc. I don't recall Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, George W. Bush or Reagan or Bush I being so divisive, and showing such transparent contempt for large swaths of the population. Despite what I thought of his flawed foreign and economic policies, I never felt that W was racist or sexist. He seemed to like most people.
This election cycle, it is as if there are supposedly the good Americans and the bad Americans. I recall Sarah Palin playing this game in 2008, and I did not like it then. I am a hardworking, rural, white, christian, straight guy, but I really don't see myself as more American than a gay, Vietnamese, urban woman. I just don't care for this view of America, but judging by the Romney vs. Obama voters, it is as if the Repubs are very, very white, and the Dems are everyone else. I am having hard time seeing how the GOP has embraced a John Birch Society type platform in 2012.
Where did this new narrative come from, and whose idea was it? I cannot see it being a smart or very civil strategy over the long term.
You and I are probably not old enough to know this, but I have seen this in documentaries about "social programs".
In 1935, the year of the social security act, many political barbs were thrown at politicians because people believed social security would be the beginning of a socialist America, in fact, FDR was called a socialist, communist, among other things because of the programs he supported.
So, it's just not something that's happened recently, both sides, D and R have been trading barbs for decades. It is nothing new.
You and I are probably not old enough to know this, but I have seen this in documentaries about "social programs".
In 1935, the year of the social security act, many political barbs were thrown at politicians because people believed social security would be the beginning of a socialist America, in fact, FDR was called a socialist, communist, among other things because of the programs he supported.
So, it's just not something that's happened recently, both sides, D and R have been trading barbs for decades. It is nothing new.
You could well be right. However, I seem to recall the anti-socialist, KKK, McCarthyist perspectives were pretty marginal, nutball fringe stuff. Now they seem to dominate the GOP platform.
I am not talking about either presidential candidate. Rather, I am talking about the current, everyone except white conservatives are worthless mindset. Even white moderates are considered worthless. It is the GOP against everyone else in the world (in America and abroad), and for that matter, all other rational forms of thought.
I don't see the Dems retreating into some ideological fantasy land where global warming is a hoax, tax cuts raise revenue, sign pledges to serve lobbyists, and call most of their fellow citizens worthless freeloaders. I would gladly compromise with some moderate republicans to solve financial problems, but guys like Bob Dole and John McCain no longer hold any power. Instead we get folks like McConnell, Aikin, Bachman, and Ryan to try to deal with. And judging by the posts on this forum, there is precious little introspection. It is like outrage, stubbornness, and insults are the only way they communicate with the rest of us.
I've noticed this shift as well. While it's true that "some" people have abused the welfare system it is not the case that all people who need help are lazy and worthless. You cannot have the kind of economic collapse that occured in '08 without severe effects straight across the board. People lost jobs through no fault of their own. This new GOP doesn't see it that way, however. Now they just blame those who are less fortunate and tell them it's all their fault so just go away and die on the street somewhere. I find it appalling.
We have been moving toward a more liberal welfare state for a long time. The pendelum is merely swinging back to the right as a backlash to the extreme left swing. It happens over and over with social experiments and hopefully, we will come to our senses and strike a balance in our tinkering with society's ills.
When Romney spoke of the 47 %, I do not think he was talking about the old, the returning vets, people who lost jobs and are actively wanting a job. There is an element in this country that likes a check coming in each month and they aren't going to claim wages or claim just enough to get the EIC, which comes up to thousands in refund money. There are a lot of drug addicts on SS disability, people with "bi polar disorder", people who claim disabilities who are working under the table.....I would run out of fingers and toes, counting the people I know in these very situations and lots of others who are planning to file......
It's not only the uneducated I am speaking about, I am a professional who encounters a wide spectrum of people.
And, it is okay for me to be finger printed and drug tested but, it impinges on the dignity of people on welfare to do the same ? It's MY money paying for their benefits....oh, no ! we can't do that, their egos are fragile.....BS.
We have been moving toward a more liberal welfare state for a long time. The pendelum is merely swinging back to the right as a backlash to the extreme left swing. It happens over and over with social experiments and hopefully, we will come to our senses and strike a balance in our tinkering with society's ills.
When Romney spoke of the 47 %, I do not think he was talking about the old, the returning vets, people who lost jobs and are actively wanting a job. There is an element in this country that likes a check coming in each month and they aren't going to claim wages or claim just enough to get the EIC, which comes up to thousands in refund money. There are a lot of drug addicts on SS disability, people with "bi polar disorder", people who claim disabilities who are working under the table.....I would run out of fingers and toes, counting the people I know in these very situations and lots of others who are planning to file......
It's not only the uneducated I am speaking about, I am a professional who encounters a wide spectrum of people.
And, it is okay for me to be finger printed and drug tested but, it impinges on the dignity of people on welfare to do the same ? It's MY money paying for their benefits....oh, no ! we can't do that, their egos are fragile.....BS.
There are always going to be scammers, but it makes no sense to throw the baby out with the bath water. There are too many truly disabled ( mentally and/or physically) that absolutely need these benefits to live. As far as drug testing for benefits, how much is this silliness going to cost? I'm sure the scammers would have no clue how to fool that test. Maybe the biggest issue I have with republicans is how they complain about nanny states/laws, but consistently try to implement a gazillion of their own.
The Obama campaign target audience is of fear-inducing to the uninformed, emotion-driven, and dominated in their thinking by entitlement greed, rather than by considerations of right and wrong.
Untrue. If anything it is the Republican Right's appeal to greed and fear. I see Obama as appealing to most peoples sense of fairness and oppurtunity.
Location: On the "Left Coast", somewhere in "the Land of Fruits & Nuts"
8,852 posts, read 10,453,787 times
Reputation: 6670
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fiddlehead
Where did this new narrative come from, and whose idea was it? I cannot see it being a smart or very civil strategy over the long term.
This has actually been going on for awhile, going back at least to the Nixon era and his Silent Majority, along with Spiro Agnew's comments about "nattering nabobs of negativity" (referring to lib-rul pundits and the press in general). But we forget that the Democratic Party was largely all about the working man and the blue collar vote, pre-dating FDR. Except the Vietnam war changed all that to being dominated by younger, more affluent and better-educated voters, with more progressive ideas about stuff like womens' rights, gays, minorities, etc.
Naturally that alienated a lot of the traditional Dem blue-collar constituency, especially in the South. Reagan completed that shift by courting the so-called "Reagan Democrats", thru the Southern Strategy and talking in 'code' with words like "States Rights" and "welfare queens", etc..
Finally by the time Dubya came along, GOP presidential candidates were already openly talking about "embracing Jesus", and that good old southern boy Karl Rove (with the help of Limbaugh and others) had by then invented the "culture wars". The rest we can thank the power of the internet, cable tv, and talk radio for. But when you come down to it, isn't that really what this is all about, is still that basically ante-bellum Southern (aka, xenophobic) attitude of "respect your betters" and "you ain't from around here, are 'ya boy (or girl)...?!"
Location: Prescott Valley,az summer/east valley Az winter
2,061 posts, read 4,134,299 times
Reputation: 8190
guess I better post this~ been a long time GOP member discusted with others looking at all the candidates and voting in the very worst....Yes I voted for Obama last time and early voted for Obama this time. And if Romney is elected my brothers and I are planning on selling our construction business~ putting our money into stocks so we can lower our taxes and firing the 23 employees that we currently have....
just a better alternative to increase our usable funds than providing jobs...and the healthcare benefits we have been suuplying those people.
What has been really upsetting to me this election cycle has been the overt insults from the white right toward everyone else. The dependent classes, the takers vs. the makers, the 47%, government aparach etc. I don't recall Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, George W. Bush or Reagan or Bush I being so divisive, and showing such transparent contempt for large swaths of the population. Despite what I thought of his flawed foreign and economic policies, I never felt that W was racist or sexist. He seemed to like most people.
This election cycle, it is as if there are supposedly the good Americans and the bad Americans. I recall Sarah Palin playing this game in 2008, and I did not like it then. I am a hardworking, rural, white, christian, straight guy, but I really don't see myself as more American than a gay, Vietnamese, urban woman. I just don't care for this view of America, but judging by the Romney vs. Obama voters, it is as if the Repubs are very, very white, and the Dems are everyone else. I am having hard time seeing how the GOP has embraced a John Birch Society type platform in 2012.
Where did this new narrative come from, and whose idea was it? I cannot see it being a smart or very civil strategy over the long term.
Make a big election about little things.
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