Original Sin: Why the GOP is and will continue to be the party of white people

[Iwillnevergiveup]

From February 10, 2013


http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112365/why-republicans-are-party-white-people#

##snip##

"With Barack Obama sworn in for a second term—the first president in either party since Ronald Reagan to be elected twice with popular majorities—the GOP is in jeopardy, the gravest since 1964, of ceasing to be a national party. The civil rights pageantry of the inauguration—Abraham Lincoln's Bible and Martin Luther King's, Justice Sonia Sotomayor's swearing in of Joe Biden, Beyoncé's slinky glamor, the verses read by the gay Cuban poet Richard Blanco—seemed not just an assertion of Democratic solidarity, but also a reminder of the GOP's ever-narrowing identity and of how long it has been in the making.

"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?"

##snip"

[Skittles]

1. they're the party of bigots

they do not represent me and I am as white as this background

[freshwest]

2. My main concern is JP Bush and electoral shenanigans.

I hope the election commission that Obama had to set up with an executive order instead of the do-nothing GOP House, goes at this with all fours. It'll be needed next year and beyond. It will take a generation for a peaceful transfer of power.
No time to listen to the voices of despair and spite. That is what the GOP's front groups will use. We can only defeat ourselves.

[RainDog]

3. I wonder if Kevin Phillips regrets his past

He's a very astute political observer - but if you think about it - he helped create the current monster that he now rails against.

And here's the thing: the Republican Party has to CREATE and FEED the worst aspects of some people's personalities in order to drum up support and get people to the polls.

This includes racist sentiments, sexist sentiments, and those that would impose their religion on everyone else.

That's quite an accomplishment as a party - to appeal to the worst parts of people and then expect good government to come from that.

Or - it's batshit crazy in a sociopathic win at all costs rather than admit the world has moved on kinda way.

[mulsh]

5. He based it on his profound understanding of the racist base they rely on

I doubt he regrets very much. I believe if you lightly scratch guys like Mr. Phillips you'll quickly find exactly the same "urbane' racist as William H. Buckley or feisty Barry Goldwater. At least that's my experience growing up around republicans like those guys.

[Beartracks]

4. What a great analysis. Thanks. n/t