Republican Reassessment, and Other Fanciful Notions 2
In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Reg Henry plants his tongue inside his cheek and urges Republicans, “Enough with the soul-searching!”*
A nugget:
That Latinos preferred Mr. Obama in the election by a wide margin is a problem for the party, but not as big as advertised. Apparently, Latinos saw punitive steps being taken against illegal immigrants and feared that they would be confused with them. Who knew people could be so thin-skinned?
The remedy is not to cease saying bad things about illegal immigrants — that has given conservatives too much pleasure — but to make room for approved Latinos in the right-wing information bubble or echo chamber.
Another possible remedy is to diversify the party’s enemies so Latinos don’t have to be singled out so much. As you know, fear and loathing of something is absolutely essential to the conservative worldview.
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*Listen carefully to the calls of the soul-searchers, then take out your Audubon and identify the callers.
Republican politicians are not doing any soul-searching, apart from the occasional “we need to stop sounding crazy” sound bite (emphasis on “sounding”). Any soul-searching is being done by members of the right-wing punditocracy, such as David Brooks and the much lighter-weight Joe Scarborough, trying to figure out why their relentless attempts to paint Republicanism as some sort of moral imperative did not carry the day.
Republican pols will just double-down on the crazy.
It’s what their base wants.
Never let it be said that they won’t pander to their base.
November 24, 2012 at 10:28 pm
“diversify the party’s enemies” A nice turn of phrase. They’ll stop sounding crazy and hateful when they’re dead. It’s in their authoritarian brains, hardwired. They can’t change anymore than flesh-eating disease can stop being flesh-eating disease.
November 24, 2012 at 11:28 pm
They are wounded, wounded by hate and fear.
When I consider how my kids deal with race, I have some hope.
In high school, First Son’s best friend was a kid who happened to be black. First Son quit Boy Scouts when he realized that the new troop leaders (the old leaders, who were Class Acts, were burned out, their own kids long graduated, retired) were trying to drive Best Friend, the only black kid in the Troop, to quit.
Second Son’s first girlfriend was a black girl. To him, she was just [insert name here], not a “black girl.”
To my kids, they were just people. Race was not part of the equation.
I doubt that my kids have managed to escape the influence of racism in our culture, for it is oh! so insidious, but, still, my kids give me hope.
If you have not already done so, check out Chauncey Devega’s first podcast. The comments on culture, race, and politics are worth the listen.