"America's Heartland" is afraid

One of the biggest shifts in the Republican Party over recent years is a shift in the presentation of the role of the leader. The Republican party no longer offers direction as the reason to elect its candidates, it offers the leader's role as one of protection from threat.

And, by threat, I don't just mean the terrorists are coming to get you. The threats upon which the Republicans establish their power are largely cultural and governmental. Think about the "liberal agenda," and how the Republicans present themselves as the final bulwark against its implementation. Or "Hollywood," or the "feminazis," or "activist judges." There are tons of examples if you run through the Republican rhetoric. Generally, if you see the word "agenda" it's a tip off to one of these issues.

The Republican party, through coded language, has found a way to tap into the discomfort and fear experienced by a broad section of Americans.

I don't think that this is just a bigoted response simply out of ignorance, although some of it is. I think that it represents an outward manifestation of a far greater phenomena. Greater cultural stresses are playing upon these people of "Middle America," job layoffs, outsourcing, healthcare coverage problems, drug fears....

But I think the bottom line is that somehow, intuitively, these Americans no longer believe that their children will have better lives than they do. Whether that's true or not, I think that this belief is an undergirding thread in alot of the Republican rank and file's passion.

As has historically been the case, a population under stress has a tendency to fundamentalize, not necessarily in a religous sense, and one of the core elements of a fundamentalist culture is that you need someone who is "less fundamental," a demon or enemy upon which your piety is based.

You see, they really believe that we love America less than they do. And, in extreme cases they believe that those who are not "fundamental" in their love of America are not true Americans and, thus, want to tear it down.

There's a reason it's called the "culture war."

And the current Republican party has tapped into all this. In their efforts to win elections, they have all but abandoned any sort of forward looking agenda. There was no support for Social Security reform, there is no support for Individual Retirement Accounts.

What they're doing is taking all of this vague sense of uncertainty and ill footing and scapegoating it onto relatively defenseless groups for political gain. For example, can anyone really explain to me how gay marriage was going to have any effect on straight marriages? Or how the decisions on Terry Schiavo had any bearing on anyone outside that family?

The current Republican party has ventured into this frightening land as their main method of obtaining the "Middle America" votes that they need to win elections. Why is it frighteningto me? Two reasons. One, if it works, and they win elections, minority groups and interests directly suffer the result. (Just wait and watch the Supreme Court over the next few years.)

And, two, whenever this sort of "fundamental politics" has been previously undertaken, McCarthyism, turn of the century Irish, unprosecuted lynchings in the South, the only resolution is an eventual moment of such extreme excess that people recoil and society corrects, but only after those excesses have been spent upon the weaker members of our society.

This is a very ugly game the Republicans are playing. It is the utilization of fear and hate to motivate voters and those emotions don't go away on election day. Our society is worse off for it.

The Republicans have no more dream, no more of Reagan's "city on the hill" or "morning in America." What they are selling is leadership in the culture war. Protection from those who "love America less."

The great irony to me is that alot of the pain being felt by the "heartland" section of the Republican party is being inflicted upon them very directly by the big business side of the Republican party. I mean, after all, who is outsourcing the jobs, cutting pensions and healthcare.....

Also, I went back and read a previous piece I wrote on How Nixon's Southern Strategy set the table for this sort of "people like us" politics. It doesn't go as far, but I think it's far better written and explores this coming from a different angle. If you just can't get enough Mike today, take a look. I'd put it up as one of the best posts I've ever done.

(Just a long rambling rant on a Saturday. Readership is down on the weekends, so I get a little bit looser. Hope this makes sense, I'm still on cold medicine, so these "brilliant observations" may not even make sense.)