March 18, 2013 7:14 AM

"The Big Tent": Government of, by, and for Conservative White Folks

“Who needs Manhattan when we can get the electoral votes of eleven Southern states?” Kevin Phillips, the prophet of “the emerging Republican majority,” asked in 1968, when he was piecing together Richard Nixon’s electoral map. The eleven states, he meant, of the Old Confederacy. “Put those together with the Farm Belt and the Rocky Mountains, and we don’t need the big cities. We don’t even want them. Sure, Hubert [Humphrey] will carry Riverside Drive in November. La-de-dah. What will he do in Oklahoma?”…. Forty-five years later, the GOP safely has Oklahoma, and Dixie, too. But Phillips’s Sunbelt strategy was built for a different time, and a different America. Many have noted Mitt Romney’s failure to collect a single vote in 91 precincts in New York City and 59 precincts in Philadelphia. More telling is his defeat in eleven more of the nation’s 15 largest cities. Not just Chicago and Columbus, but also Indianapolis, San Diego, Houston, even Dallas—this last a reason the GOP fears that, within a generation Texas will become a swing state.

With CPAC (Conservative Spring Break) in our rear-view mirrors, it seems like a good time to reflect on where Conservative Republicans would take us given the opportunity. Really, all we have to do is look back at the Reagan years to get a sense of the path Conservatives- or, far more likely, a neoConservative majority- would drag us down. The truth is that the Republican Party is, has been, and always will be a party of, by, and for White Folks who hate and distrust minorities.

The public faces of the GOP talk the talk of inclusion and diversity, but the reality is that Republicans want to be only as diverse as is necessary to seize power. Once they’re able to achieve that, they’ll begin the process of dismantling democracy to the point where it would be exceedingly difficult for Democrats to return to power. If you don’t believe me, just look at Rick Snyder and the grand Republican experiment in dismantling democracy taking place in Michigan. Snyder, a Republican Governor, has succeeded in disenfranchising 50% of Michigan’s African-American population through an anti-Democratic “emergency manager law.” Michigan’s Republican legislature passed the bill, voters overturned it via referendum in November. The legislature then re-passed a new emergency manager bill that cannot be repealed by voters.

Republicans also have so effectively gerrymandered the state’s Congressional diet that even though Democrats received a solid majority of votes in Michigan, the GOP took nine of 14 Congressional seats.

That death rattle you’re hearing is the sound of democracy dying in Michigan.

Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania are leading the charge to rewrite voting laws in ways that will disenfranchise millions of poor and minority voters. That these folks happen to be a core Democratic constituency is PURELY coincidental. It’s ALL about democracy, yo….

While Americans tend to focus on events in Washington, legislatures in red states are rewriting the rules in ways designed to permanently enshrine Republican rule. I suppose we should give them credit for creatively using the legislative process to legally create what could fairly be described as a coup. While polls continue to show that Americans are trending left of center, trust Democrats over Republicans, and support Progressive policies, Republicans are working to tilt the playing field in their direction.

Say hello to the new GOP. Turns out it looks a lot like the old GOP, and continues to create a government of, by, and for White People.

This is what happens when you can’t be bothered to pay attention, America.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on March 18, 2013 7:14 AM.

How will the sequester effect me, Daddy? was the previous entry in this blog.

Finally, something the President and Congress can agree on is the next entry in this blog.

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