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njlauren -> RE: Gays, Immigrants, and Republicans (6/26/2013 3:41:53 PM)
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The GOP has maintained power based on hate for a long time (to give the devil it's due, so did the Dems, who had as part of their baggage for a long time what Mencken called the "KKK Branch" of the Democratic party, white southerners, bible thumpers, and the 'populist' farm based group a la William Jennings Bryan, which now makes up a large part of the GOP base. 40 years ago it started with courting the white southerners pissed off about the end of Jim Crow, then we had the 'Reagan Revolution" that brought the bible thumpers in, and then got the urban, older, blue collar vote, by telling them that their problems with jobs were due to affirmative action and welfare, then we had the anti gay push, which included calling for an amendment to ban same sex marriage in the constitution, then the anti immigrant push, and today, we have the tea party with their claim that all the problems are caused by too much government spending caused by 'freeloaders' living off the government...and it has worked for them.
Problem is, they keep playing to their base, which is mostly older, white, southern and rural, that is dying out, and even if 100% of them vote, they might keep in power in the hookworm belt, but are going to die nationally. In my own county here in NJ, a very republican kind of place, the GOP used to enjoy 90+% voting in presidential elections, Romney barely eaked out a 50-48% margin over Obama. The money people are tired over catering to morons represented by people like Bachman, they don't care about social issues, they don't care about gays, and see how catering to the rednecks is hurting chances for the GOP to rule. Problem with hating is eventually people wonder why they hated in the first place.....other than old people, most people have neutral or positive attitudes towards gays, and most people are starting to realize that the anti immigrant stance of many in the GOP is nothing more then the same hysteria they feel in general, that white majority rule, that once upon a time gave a lot of power to rural, farmbelt whites, is dying......all you had to do was look at Romney's campaign headquarters and the GOP convention, and you can see why hate doesn't work, the 2012 GOP convention didn't look all that much different than the 1952 one, at least in terms of the people you saw there...few young people, and almost no non whites.
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