Republican Rot!!!!
*Henry Flores says that the seed that produced Donald Trump was planted several generations ago, in 1962, when the GOP formed a power coalition that grabbed power then ossified. VL
By Henry Flores, NewsTaco
The politics surrounding the presidential campaign has changed so rapidly every day that it’s making it difficult for me to pick something to write about. Sometimes I find myself writing a paragraph and then some new revelation about one of the candidates comes to light changing the dynamics of the campaign and orientation of my column.
The Latest About The Donald
The most recent example of what I am talking about was this past week when we saw “The Orange Guy” getting in trouble over his taxes, his racist attitudes, and his misogyny. First The Donald received a $916+ million dollar write off in one tax year that allowed him not to pay taxes for 18 years. For all intents and purposes this is legal under our unfair tax system. You and I are not eligible for such breaks but the extremely wealthy 1% are. Then, Donald argued that the Central Park Five were guilty of a rape they were exonerated later for after spending years in jail. Then, we have the infamous “Access Hollywood Tapes” revealing some of the most vulgar, insensitive, despicable, unacceptable language that a man can use to describe his approach toward women. If Billy Bush had even a modicum of courage and dignity he would have thrown Mr. Trump’s language back in his face. I certainly would have but then again Trump is not the sort of people I hang with!
[pullquote]The electoral coalition that has brought the GOP to national power since 1964 is the epitome of what us pundits call “strange bedfellows.”[/pullquote]Meaning of All This
Without a doubt this election is over. Mr. Trump cannot come back from the precipice he has constructed for himself; he can only take another step over the edge. His political legacy will be that he set the standard, as low as it may be if there is any standard left, for what a political party seeks in a presidential nominee. But, don’t blame Trump for this fiasco. Blame the Republican Party because when they decided to pursue their now infamous “Southern Strategy” in 1964 they set the stage for their own downfall. Mr. Trump’s ascension represents the nightmare many political observers have been anticipating for quite some time because of this fateful decision.
Mr. Trump’s candidacy represents the hypocrisy, misogyny, racism, hatefulness, and anti-intellectualism that have come to dominate the Republican Party’s ideology and leadership. I didn’t say this first, I heard this from a Republican political strategist. The reference is to a phenomenon that I’ve identified in the past. The electoral coalition that has brought the GOP to national power since 1964 is the epitome of what us pundits call “strange bedfellows.” Essentially, the coalition includes fiscal conservatives, social conservatives, evangelical christians, white supremacists, and defense hawks. Sometimes the coalition includes one-issue voters such as anti-abortionists, 2nd Amendment gun enthusiasts, and climate-change deniers.
Why the Strange Bed-Fellows?
This strange coalition was started by Barry Goldwater and culminated with the victory of Newt Gingrich’s GOP House majority. The problem with this most interesting group is that the only reason they were able to stick together for so long was because their propaganda machines were able to paint Democrats as anti-family, anti-values (whatever that is?) and unpatriotic. The problem was, and is, that the propaganda was based on lies, falsehoods and untruths. And, the GOP and their hangersoners became comfortable with the lies, this comfort evolved into arrogance, and developed into a laxness as to how the false messages were resonating with newer generations of voters and a changing political landscape.
Nevertheless, the “strange bed-fellows” continued to march thinking things were unchanged and they would continue to win only to discover that their coalition had changed. The political landscape had changed in large part because of the changing demographics and the expectations of these new voters. The younger generations, genXers, millennial and new immigrants, felt they wanted a much different agenda than that propagated by the GOP. The GOP was unwilling to change because the coalition members were so vested in only winning and holding power.
Consequences
The GOP “ossified” and could not respond to the new and growing demands of a changing world and complex and diverse voting publics. The GOP elites lost control of the internal political dynamics of the party to the extremist elements, the Tea Party and white nationalists, and, as a result, the Orange One won the party’s presidential nomination. Donald Trump’s candidacy is a reflection of the anti-intellectualism, misogyny and racism that has been the core of the GOP’s ideological beliefs since 1965 and it spells the end-times for Grand Old Party of Lincoln.
Henry Flores, PhD, is the Distinguished University Research Professor, Institute of Public Administration and Public Service; Director, Masters in Public Administration (MPA); Professor of International Relations and Political Science at St. Mary’s University. He is the author of Latinos and the Voting Rights Act: The Search for Racial Purpose.
[Photo by DonkeyHotey/Flickr]