Campaign 2016 Part XI: the Two Party Problem

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XI: the Two Party Problem

I'll believe it when I see it when the White Power Party nominates a Cuban or Black or Hispanic or Indian candidate. I hate to be cynical, but I just don't see it happening anytime soon.

I've seen it with the Drumpfers in the offices on either side of mine. Last time they went through a Herman Caine phase and this time it was Ben Carson. They love spite (after all, what is Drumpf but walking, talking spite?), and voting for a woman or a person of color will allow them to stick out their tongues at Them Thar Holier Than Thou Demoncraps, hurr hurr!!!!1!1

[Rover]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XI: the Two Party Problem

I've seen it with the Drumpfers in the offices on either side of mine. Last time they went through a Herman Caine phase and this time it was Ben Carson. They love spite (after all, what is Drumpf but walking, talking spite?), and voting for a woman or a person of color will allow them to stick out their tongues at Them Thar Holier Than Thou Demoncraps, hurr hurr!!!!1!1

That sounds good, and maybe your co-workers are telling themselves that, but when push comes to shove Herm Cain and Ben Carson got about as many votes as the guy who ran for dog catcher in my town. Again, I'll believe it when I see it. In the entire GOP congressional delegation, is there more than 1 minority (Scott in SC)? Out of almost 300 people?

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XI: the Two Party Problem

That sounds good, and maybe your co-workers are telling themselves that, but when push comes to shove Herm Cain and Ben Carson got about as many votes as the guy who ran for dog catcher in my town. Again, I'll believe it when I see it. In the entire GOP congressional delegation, is there more than 1 minority (Scott in SC)? Out of almost 300 people?

I'm going to comment based on my 10 years of embedded anthropology among the Salt of the Earth.

The conservative mountain has several geologic strata.

Level 0: At the very bottom are the hard core unreconstructed racists. The genuine article, unchanged since the time of Mark Twain. None of these people actually has a job or functions in society wider than their extended families. They lie on the couch watching TV and spitting the same racist bile that has gurgled up from the id since we left the trees. I only know of these people, from the stories my co-workers tell. Interestingly, these are the people most conservatives have in mind when they talk about "good for nothing welfare cheats." And hey, they should know. It's always a brother-in-law who is like this. They have virtually no political activity.

Level 1: The next level are the Unskilled Working Poor Conservatives. They're mostly fundamentalist Christians, don't believe in evolution or global warming, and have almost zero "book learning." They do the very worst jobs: they work at chicken processing plants or convenience stores or assembly plants. They distrust Fox News and "slick" media types. The love Glenn Beck and go in for Infowars et al. They lack any mainstream political ideology, believing the Republicans and Democrats are two wings of the same party. They are primarily re-living past scores to settle: they hate the gubbmint or the drug companies or the military because at some point in their lives they've been genuinely wronged. They feed on and emit pure resentment. They hate banksters and lawyers and, come to think of it, that guy over there does kinda look Jewy. Before Drumpf they had very little political involvement, but they believe in Him big time.

Level 2: My co-workers, the Blue Collar Skilled Conservatives. This is the backbone of the current Republican base. They have regular jobs, homeschool their kids, listen to talk radio, have a strange guilt relationship with religion. They are driven primarily by fear of losing what little they have. These are the people the GOP screwed over at the height of "What's the Matter with Kansas," and they even sort of know it but feel they have no choice because of abortion. If they have college it's a Strayer business degree or a post-military accreditation program. These are, as near as I can tell, the only people left in the United States who actually do real work for a living. Without them absolutely nothing would work: cars, appliances, electrical grids, HVAC, plumbing, construction. These are the only people who have any skills that would be relevant in a pre-1950 world. They are the voters who the Democrats lost in the late 60's through late 80's. They believe much of the bilge that is firehosed at them by conservative media, but primarily they just want to be left alone. They're by far the largest segment of the conservative mountain and as such the most diverse, with the usual bell curve for intelligence, morality, and work ethic. Importantly, they are not racist -- they are probably the only people in the country who are genuinely not caring about race. They value hard work, good values, and decorum. If they tend to distrust blacks or city people as a general hypothesis it's because they have been pumped full of poison by the Echo Chamber for generations, but put a black person in front of them and they welcome them with the same spirit of Christian brotherhood as anybody else. They're sick of being called racist and they would love a serious conservative black candidate to jam that smugness back down liberal throats. (They are, though, painfully homophobic, and they're fairly sexist although it's slowly dying off -- on gender they are about where American liberal males were in the 70's).

There are more strata above them but those become indistinguishable from liberal strata, with the political differences being driven not by ideology but by accidents of autobiography: they are middle class white collar folks born into conservative homes so they're conservative, or they are hard-scrabble immigrants who made it big and believe in American exceptionalism. At the top there are the take-no-prisoners "I'm alright Jack take your hands offa my stack" Meritocrats and then the doddering, Senatorial Bush/Romney Upper Class Twit of the Year donor class. These upper strata are the ones who run Republican national politics so they're all familiar enough.

[Handyman]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XI: the Two Party Problem

Yeah it is. Marco Rubio the person came off as a cross between a ventriloquist dummy and Chip Diller, but Marco Rubio the Platonic ideal is exactly the future of the GOP: immigranty but not too scary to rural whites, second generation filled with entrepreneurial pep and a simplistic equation of all government with the dictatorship back in the Olde Country, photogenic and superficially religious without getting too heavy. A fellow you'd like on your PTA. One of the "good ones."

That's their way out of their demographic death spiral. I'm sure right now there's an assembly line churning out a million Marco Rubios to come 'splain to us about how American exceptionalism is all that's standing between us and a Nicaraguan hellhole.

Thing is, the actual issues to create a new GOP are just lying around, unclaimed by either party. The Democrats abandoned the working class and the GOP frontrunners are con artists who will use them but never give them what they want. Marco Rubio version 2.0 will actually believe in re-empowering the American working class. He'll take the old Reaganesque "regulation is stifling bidness" routine, warm it over by drumming up a new cold war against China, and add some "I like to be in A-mer-eee-ca!" caliente.

People thought that about Sarah Palin and as soon as the Faux Palins started to show up they got beaten like it was Wack-a-Mole. (and the ones that survived shut up to avoid looking dumber than usual) There arent enough Rubio types around that support the GOP and the ones who do are guys like Bobby Jindal and Marco who just have no idea how to act in public.

[geezer]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XI: the Two Party Problem

I'm going to comment based on my 10 years of embedded anthropology among the Salt of the Earth.

The conservative mountain has several geologic strata.

Level 0: At the very bottom are the hard core unreconstructed racists. The genuine article, unchanged since the time of Mark Twain. None of these people actually has a job or functions in society wider than their extended families. They lie on the couch watching TV and spitting the same racist bile that has gurgled up from the id since we left the trees. I only know of these people, from the stories my co-workers tell. Interestingly, these are the people most conservatives have in mind when they talk about "good for nothing welfare cheats." And hey, they should know. It's always a brother-in-law who is like this. They have virtually no political activity.

Level 1: The next level are the Unskilled Working Poor Conservatives. They're mostly fundamentalist Christians, don't believe in evolution or global warming, and have almost zero "book learning." They do the very worst jobs: they work at chicken processing plants or convenience stores or assembly plants. They distrust Fox News and "slick" media types. The love Glenn Beck and go in for Infowars et al. They lack any mainstream political ideology, believing the Republicans and Democrats are two wings of the same party. They are primarily re-living past scores to settle: they hate the gubbmint or the drug companies or the military because at some point in their lives they've been genuinely wronged. They feed on and emit pure resentment. They hate banksters and lawyers and, come to think of it, that guy over there does kinda look Jewy. Before Drumpf they had very little political involvement, but they believe in Him big time.

Level 2: My co-workers, the Blue Collar Skilled Conservatives. This is the backbone of the current Republican base. They have regular jobs, homeschool their kids, listen to talk radio, have a strange guilt relationship with religion. They are driven primarily by fear of losing what little they have. These are the people the GOP screwed over at the height of "What's the Matter with Kansas," and they even sort of know it but feel they have no choice because of abortion. If they have college it's a Strayer business degree or a post-military accreditation program. These are, as near as I can tell, the only people left in the United States who actually do real work for a living. Without them absolutely nothing would work: cars, appliances, electrical grids, HVAC, plumbing, construction. These are the only people who have any skills that would be relevant in a pre-1950 world. They are the voters who the Democrats lost in the late 60's through late 80's. They believe much of the bilge that is firehosed at them by conservative media, but primarily they just want to be left alone. They're by far the largest segment of the conservative mountain and as such the most diverse, with the usual bell curve for intelligence, morality, and work ethic. Importantly, they are not racist -- they are probably the only people in the country who are genuinely not caring about race. They value hard work, good values, and decorum. If they tend to distrust blacks or city people as a general hypothesis it's because they have been pumped full of poison by the Echo Chamber for generations, but put a black person on front of them and they welcome them with the same spirit of Christian brotherhood as anybody else. They're sick of being called racist and they would love a serious conservative black candidate to jam that smugness back down liberal throats. (They are, though, painfully homophobic, and they're fairly sexist although it's slowly dying off -- on gender they are about where American liberal males were in the 70's).

There are more strata above them but those become indistinguishable from liberal strata, with the political differences being driven not by ideology but by accidents of autobiography: they are middle class white collar folks born into conservative homes so they're conservative, or they are hard-scrabble immigrants who made it big and believe in American exceptionalism. At the top there are the take-no-prisoners "I'm alright Jack take your hands offa my stack" Meritocrats and then the doddering, Senatorial Bush/Romney Upper Class Twit of the Year donor class. These upper strata are the ones who run Republican national politics so they're all familiar enough.

I might be a sucker, but I have to ask and hope for an honest answer: Are you being sincere when you do this stuff? I like to imagine you as a long-suffering geek hunched over your keyboard and sweating your way through a rich world you have developed in your own mind; it makes the world more interesting (also I just watched the Bobby Fischer movie so I could appreciate the ethereal value of such a "creative" thinker). Or are you just playing?

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XI: the Two Party Problem

I might be a sucker, but I have to ask and hope for an honest answer: Are you being sincere when you do this stuff? I like to imagine you as a long-suffering geek hunched over your keyboard and sweating your way through a rich world you have developed in your own mind; it makes the world more interesting (also I just watched the Bobby Fischer movie so I could appreciate the ethereal value of such a "creative" thinker). Or are you just playing?

Sincere.

Which Bobby Fisher movie?

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XI: the Two Party Problem

People thought that about Sarah Palin and as soon as the Faux Palins started to show up they got beaten like it was Wack-a-Mole. (and the ones that survived shut up to avoid looking dumber than usual) There arent enough Rubio types around that support the GOP and the ones who do are guys like Bobby Jindal and Marco who just have no idea how to act in public.

But there will be more because that's a clear lane to power.

I love (well, and am appalled by) the Lee Atwater story that when he started in politics he didn't give a crap either way, but the Republican field was thin on the ground so he started there because he could get higher faster. This is the guy who helped Bush Senior use Willie Horton and shifted the Southern Strategy into a nearly explicit racist overdrive to peel southern and rural whites off the Democrats, and he personally had no political convictions whatsoever. It was just a job. That's how most political advisers and to be honest some politicians think. Ideology is just another product to package and sell, and if you think you can go higher with Delta than Pepsi then you become an airline guy instead of a beverage guy.

It's only us, the suckers, who actually have convictions. :-)

[geezer]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XI: the Two Party Problem

Sincere.

Which Bobby Fisher movie?

Pawn Sacrifice. It's pretty good.

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XI: the Two Party Problem

Pawn Sacrifice. It's pretty good.

I've only seen the documentary that came out about a decade ago. It was heartbreaking. With meds he might have had such a different life.

[geezer]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XI: the Two Party Problem

I've only seen the documentary that came out about a decade ago. It was heartbreaking. With meds he might have had such a different life.

From the movie, "That would be like pouring concrete down a holy well." There's an interesting theory among certain hippy-dippy types that every bright and glorious gift must be paid for with a balancing life trial or flaw. But it is a heart-breaking biography.

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XI: the Two Party Problem

From the movie, "That would be like pouring concrete down a holy well." There's an interesting theory among certain hippy-dippy types that every bright and glorious gift must be paid for with a balancing life trial or flaw. But it is a heart-breaking biography.

From Equus:

“The Normal is the good smile in a child's eyes: alright. It is also the dead stare in a million adults. It both sustains and kills-like a god. It is the Ordinary made beautiful: it is also the Average made lethal. The Normal is the indispensable, murderous God of Health, and I am his priest. My tools are very delicate. My compassion is honest. I have honestly assisted children in this room. I have talked away terrors and relieved many agonies. But also-beyond question-I have cut from the parts of individuality repugnant to this god, in both his aspects. Parts sacred to rarer and more wonderful gods. And at what length...Sacrifices to Zeus took at the most, surely, sixty seconds each. Sacrifices to the Normal can take as long as sixty months.”

[geezer]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XI: the Two Party Problem

From Equus:

Luke 12:48

For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

[busterman62]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XI: the Two Party Problem

Luke 12:48

That's from Luke? Man, I thought that was the US Tax Code.

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XI: the Two Party Problem

Where to begin?

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump on Tuesday aired a tabloid story that said Rafael Cruz, Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) father, was seen with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XI: the Two Party Problem

I'm torn. On the one hand, the advent of Drumpf is a classic fascist threat to democracy. On the other hand, it makes the Weekly Standard clutch their pearls.