dagblog - Comments for "Tea Party: Nixon's chickens come home to roost"

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David Seaton — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 06:25:59 +0000

In reply to Tea Party: Nixon's chickens come home to roost

My theory is that most of the

David Seaton — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:49:54 +0000

In reply to I advise against generalizing

My theory is that most of the Tea Partiers know very well what being broke is all about and they are terrified of being there again. They mistakenly identify their fate with the fate of the truly rich.

Fear has always been a useful tool of governance. In the '50, the "red scare" supplied all the necessary paranoia; that was when the economy was booming. The sort of economic hardship we are beginning to see today hasn't been around since the Great Depression. So that's the only thing we could compare it with... those were the days of Huey Long. The Tea folk are terrified of the great unwashed raising the partier's taxes in order to educate their filthy little children and feed the little brats and such.

Chacun ses goûts....How about

EmmaZahn — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:37:03 +0000

In reply to Oh God...I loath southern

Chacun ses goûts....

How about a nice cover of Neil Young's After the Gold Rush?

That's so true, Emma. For so

wws — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 17:16:00 +0000

In reply to Ever think about the

That's so true, Emma. For so long it's been impossible to vote FOR someone on the ballot in most states in the South -- in my case, in South Carolina; one can only vote for the lesser of evils and often that isn't enough to feel good about.

Btw, thanks for the Skynryd, a song I've always loved.

I just got home from a family funeral in Alabama -- a family I might add, in which no one is a Teaparty nutcase or a religious Fundie. Despite all the previously well-earned stereotypes, there are a lot of thinking/equalitarian-minded people in the South. They are gaining in numbers, in every state, and if the Democrats don't completely blow it by ignoring jobs and healthcare, there will be viable Democratic -- not Dixiecrat -- candidates sooner rather than later.

Oh God...I loath southern

cmaukonen — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 16:37:47 +0000

In reply to Ever think about the

Oh God...I loath southern rock.

I'll wager that that you will

cmaukonen — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 16:35:38 +0000

In reply to I advise against generalizing

I'll wager that that you will find that most fit the typical Neuvo Riche profile though. Upper middle class and with out any real positive social qualities. They drink expensive imported beer but would not know the difference between that and stale Bubwiser.

Uh ... Ya' know . . .It was

oldenGoldenDecoy — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 14:58:31 +0000

In reply to Ever think about the

Uh ... Ya' know . . .

It was more like Locked up in Alabama

My ol' touring partner from Tupelo knew it well . . .

Delaney - RIP

~OGD~

I advise against generalizing

Michael Wolraich — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 14:04:00 +0000

In reply to Genghis,I think it might be

I advise against generalizing the "typical Tea Party profile," as as the adherents are surprisingly diverse. Certainly, neither one of us has the data to back up any speculations about the income of Tea Party supporters when they were growing up.

But the point is that Tea Party supporters have on average suffered less hardship from the recession than others, which undermines the hypothesis that unemployment causes extremism. This hypothesis, known in its most common form as the frustration-aggression theory, was a popular explanation for the fascist movements of the forties, but some of the early studies supporting it were debunked, and additional data has not borne it out. One recent study of the relationship between economic decline and political extemism found a small effect but concluded, "it is unlikely that even strong recessions can change political outcomes." As a counterexample, I also note that the most recent period of extreme political paranoia in the United States took place during the post-war economic boom of the 1950s.

When we talk about George

David Seaton — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 10:37:46 +0000

In reply to You have absolutely nailed it

When we talk about George Wallace, as Richard Nixon's "evil spirit" it is very important to talk about his post-assassination epiphany, something that never occured with Nixon or with his real evil spirit, Pat Buchanan.

Here it is from Wikipedia:

Following the assassination attempt, Wallace was visited at the hospital by Democratic Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, a representative from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn who at the time was the nation's only African American female member of Congress. Despite their ideological differences and the opposition of Chisholm's constituents, many of whom were all too happy to see Wallace get shot, Chisholm visited Wallace as she felt it was the humane thing to do.(...) Wallace announced that he was a born-again Christian in the late 1970s, and apologized to black civil rights leaders for his earlier segregationist views. He said that while he had once sought power and glory, he realized he needed to seek love and forgiveness. In 1979, as blacks began voting in large numbers in Alabama, Wallace said of his stand in the schoolhouse door: "I was wrong. Those days are over and they ought to be over."His final term as Governor (1983–1987) saw a record number of black appointments to government positions. Wikipedia

This is phenomenom that we can see in other white southern "Christian" politicians such as Jimmy Carter and Mike Huckabee

This is one of the reasons that I believe that deeply rooted, evangelical, charismatic, "southern" religion, which is basically the faith of poor whites and African Americans holds an important key in defeating the divisions of racism, which cripple the American left.

Ever think about the

EmmaZahn — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 08:42:47 +0000

In reply to Tea Party: Nixon's chickens come home to roost

Ever think about the Democratic Party's counter strategy during the same time span? What was it? How much of a fight did it put up to keep the Solid South solidly Democratic?

At least since Mondale's disastrous 1984 campaign*, the Democratic strategy has been to win without the South. Several books openly advocate it including the relatively recent Whistling Past Dixie and Why the Democrats Should Write Off the South. I have no idea why the authors bothered to write the books since for all practical purposes the Party abandoned the South in 1968 leaving Southern Democrats and the majority of the USA's black population to the tender mercies of the Southern GOP newly invigorated by Dixiecrats who also abandoned the Democratic Party around the same time. Ironic, eh? Want more irony? Domestic migration from other parts of the country has increased the South's electoral votes since then.

I have not voted for a Democrat for any local or state office in the past decade for the simple reason that there are none on the ballot. You can't win if you don't compete.

And now a little period music to end.