Modern GOP is now the party of Dixie

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

two earlier articles (here and here), I argued that the Republican Party’s extremism can be traced to its increased dependence on an electorate that is largely rural, Southern and white. These voters, who figure prominently in the Tea Party, often decline to interpret political conflict as a struggle among interest groups or a good-faith clash of opinion. Instead, they tend to identify the country as a whole with an idealized version of themselves, and to equate any dissent from their values with disloyalty by alien, “un-American” forces. This paranoid vision of politics, I argued, makes them seek out opportunities for dramatic conflict and to shun negotiation and compromise.

In what follows, I want to extend these thoughts a bit further by exploring one simple question: why is this strain of political paranoia so entrenched in the South? The answer, I believe, will shed light not only on the current state of our politics but on the evolution of American conservatism generally.

*

We should begin with a clarification. What we want to explain isn’t why rural voters might think their interests sometimes diverge from those of urban (and suburban) Americans. That is easily enough explained: they think it because it’s true. Rural and urban areas have distinctive concerns, and these sometimes result in incompatible demands on policymakers. These kinds of conflicts are the mother’s milk of politics, so none of this is particularly surprising or, indeed, interesting.

What is surprising and interesting is when this conflict is experienced not as a matter of interests but of identity. It’s one thing to see urbanites as fellow citizens whose policy preferences depart from one’s own; it’s quite another to argue that their policy preferences give rise to serious doubt about whether they’re really Americans. Yet exactly this is the message of all those conservative complaints about “socialistic” Democrats who ignore our constitutional traditions as they labor to install a “nanny state.” These aren’t true Americans, resolute, independent, self-reliant; they’re feckless, faux-European traitors. (Though one, in particular, may have closer connections with Africa than Europe. You know who I mean.)

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/12/modern_gop_is_still_the_party_of_dixie/

[Xipe Totec]

1. It's the Gathering Of Pricks nt

[n2doc]

2. A reminder

2012 election results, Red=repub, blue = dem)



And


Maybe the GOP is 'the party of Dixie", but it sure is getting a lot of help from voters in Northern states like Michigan and Pennsylvania, and Western States. There are more t-baggers in Michigan than there are in Georgia.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

3. If you've read the article I've linked to the author points out that the rural areas are red.

Pretty much aligns with your map.

[longship]

4. I am afraid that that's the demographic that matters in the House.

But Dems should not dismiss the fact that the shutdown and the upcoming default might be propping up their base. Unfortunately, with all the wackaloonery extant in the GOP caucus, their base is increasingly limited to crazy evangelicals, racists, misogynists, and other social outcasts.

I am most worried about what's happening. I do not have a solution except to expose these idiots for their idiocy. Who knows if that would even work to turn things around with so few true journalists to hold people's feet to the fire.

It's a scary time.

[Baitball Blogger]

5. There was an article flying around here the other day that called them

neo-confederates. It makes sense because small government proponents are satisfying their crony groups by undermining the Fourteenth Amendment.

In fact, as a Liberal website, I wonder why we don't have soulful discussions about the merits of the Fourteenth Amendment since it is what distinguishes us from the right-wingers. I know enough to explain how it affects me on a local level, but I'm sure there are Constitutional scholars around here that could do far more.