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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow did we get here? The monster that the GOP built.
I've seen the question raised a few times, both here on DU and on my twitter feed and various blogs and vlogs. The below are just my opinion based on observation.
There's been a concerted effort by the right to demonize the word "liberal" and "progressive." This is not an accident. The right has been building this for years and years and years. From the advertising of supply-side-economics, to corporate personhood, the right has been designing a bespoke culture war that neatly pits the poor and middle class against their own self-interest in the loudest possible terms, while those same corporations keep cutting the bottom line, cutting jobs, cutting benefits, and moving production to cheap tax havens.
It's a stunningly good example of the "Let's you and him fight" con.
It's so firmly entrenched now, that well before this election cycle we were seeing signs of "Keep the government out of my medicare" with no sense of irony or understanding around it. Incredibly wealthy right wing radio and TV hosts have been training the poor and middle class to be angry at the "liberals" who are taking their money and giving it to "do-nothings" or "slackers" or "welfare queens" or "special interest groups."
Those are, of course, all code for immigrants, the poor, POC, single mothers, etc...
And now the anger they've been injecting slowly and steadily into their followers for decades has reached a critical mass, and they've lost control of their own creation. The monster they've built has no allegiance to them or anyone. It's a headless blunder that wants to break everything down because ANGER!!!!
People are scared of change, by and large. Scared people become angry when they are subject to changes that they don't understand or welcome. They've been trained for years to be angry and scared, and now the GOP seems shocked by all of these angry people supporting Trump. It takes almost no brains to oppose change, but real change takes planning, careful thought, and intelligence; another thing that the right has been training people to fear and mistrust.
So, here you have a soup of racism, anger, fear, mistrust of government, mistrust of liberals and progressives, mistrust of the educated, mistrust of the poor, sexism, and fear of change. When Trump is defeated in November, those voters aren't going to go away. They're going to be angrier and unhappier than you've ever seen them.
And this doesn't even touch on things like austerity, free trade, etc...
apcalc
(4,461 posts)PJMcK
(21,921 posts)Saviolo
(3,270 posts)When this particular monster wakes up and strangles them. Split the party between run-of-the-mill Republicans and the crazy far right white nationalists, racists, dominionists, and tea partiers for the next 4 election cycles or so.
immoderate
(20,885 posts)Beside demonizing liberals and progressives, they have demonized government and the media, and in some cases, that's deserved. Not limited to one party, either. The elections serve the same purpose that Romans had for bread and circuses. (Without the bread. )
--imm
underpants
(182,279 posts)mainly to make fun of their simplistic ideals of a complex subject.
Saviolo
(3,270 posts)Black anger is not welcome in this movement. The only anger that is valid according to the GOP and the right wing talking heads is white anger.
Black anger (like the reaction when a POC is killed by police) is verboten. They're not even allowed to say that their lives matter.
The only anger that the GOP wants is the anger they've been building within white America for decades.