In my last piece I quoted from a Talking Points piece that pointed out the interesting juxtaposition of the Republican party:
1. Finally publicly disavowing the Confederate flag
2. At the exact same time embracing Donald Trump
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/07/huffington-post-banishes-trump-to.html
Richard Perlstein points out that while certain things like the CF have to be publicly disavowed, the private feelings don't actually change.
"There’s an enormous amount to learn in this juxtaposition about how conservatism works at its deepest levels. It drives liberals crazy when conservatives dress themselves in the clothes of the great social-justice movements of the past: when they avow that were he alive now Martin Luther King would be a Republican, when they compare their crusades to force pregnant women to give birth to Mahatma Gandhi’s March to the Sea. This is not a new development; indeed, it’s baked into the reactionary cake."
"Conservatives understand that the direction of human history is not on their side—that, other things equal, civilization does tend toward more inclusion, more emancipation, more liberalism. That is the great source of their anger. And that, too, is the source of the compulsion to dress reaction in the raiment of liberation. Politically, it is the only way."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/donald-trump-confederate-flag
This is something I've remarked on myself after the ACA decision-history is against conservatism.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/06/why-is-conservatives-were-nicer-people.html
If you are a conservative there is good news and bad news for you.
1. The good news is you almost always win. Usually tradition wins out. These is hard-wired into humans for their own survival.
2. However, they can trounce progressives 10 times in a row, 25, times in a row, 100 times in a row, 1000 times but nevertheless, being a conservative is like being a goalie in sudden death. If one gets by you, you lose despite saving the previous 1000 shots.
It has to be frustrating and would explain why conservatives say things like 'We must stay in a constant state of vigilance
As Perlstein says-and he writes some great books on Barry Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=rick+perlstein
Trump is again trying to tap in Nixon's Silent Majority. Pat Buchanan has been evoking Nixon's spirit lately.
http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Comeback-Richard-Defeat-Majority-ebook/dp/B00HXYLW8K/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1437221936&sr=1-1&keywords=pat+buchanan+the+greatest+comeback
The trouble is the hope that conservatives can catch the same lightning in the same bottle again at the very same place is unlikely. I've said before and will say again-the conservative GOP will never get it. They won't learn except through total defeat-which will probably take another 10 to 20 years.
They won't give up trying to catch the same lightning in the same bottle at the same time of day as they did in 1968.
1. Finally publicly disavowing the Confederate flag
2. At the exact same time embracing Donald Trump
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/07/huffington-post-banishes-trump-to.html
Richard Perlstein points out that while certain things like the CF have to be publicly disavowed, the private feelings don't actually change.
"There’s an enormous amount to learn in this juxtaposition about how conservatism works at its deepest levels. It drives liberals crazy when conservatives dress themselves in the clothes of the great social-justice movements of the past: when they avow that were he alive now Martin Luther King would be a Republican, when they compare their crusades to force pregnant women to give birth to Mahatma Gandhi’s March to the Sea. This is not a new development; indeed, it’s baked into the reactionary cake."
"Conservatives understand that the direction of human history is not on their side—that, other things equal, civilization does tend toward more inclusion, more emancipation, more liberalism. That is the great source of their anger. And that, too, is the source of the compulsion to dress reaction in the raiment of liberation. Politically, it is the only way."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/donald-trump-confederate-flag
This is something I've remarked on myself after the ACA decision-history is against conservatism.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/06/why-is-conservatives-were-nicer-people.html
If you are a conservative there is good news and bad news for you.
1. The good news is you almost always win. Usually tradition wins out. These is hard-wired into humans for their own survival.
2. However, they can trounce progressives 10 times in a row, 25, times in a row, 100 times in a row, 1000 times but nevertheless, being a conservative is like being a goalie in sudden death. If one gets by you, you lose despite saving the previous 1000 shots.
It has to be frustrating and would explain why conservatives say things like 'We must stay in a constant state of vigilance
As Perlstein says-and he writes some great books on Barry Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=rick+perlstein
Trump is again trying to tap in Nixon's Silent Majority. Pat Buchanan has been evoking Nixon's spirit lately.
http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Comeback-Richard-Defeat-Majority-ebook/dp/B00HXYLW8K/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1437221936&sr=1-1&keywords=pat+buchanan+the+greatest+comeback
The trouble is the hope that conservatives can catch the same lightning in the same bottle again at the very same place is unlikely. I've said before and will say again-the conservative GOP will never get it. They won't learn except through total defeat-which will probably take another 10 to 20 years.
They won't give up trying to catch the same lightning in the same bottle at the same time of day as they did in 1968.
I don't think politics works this way. Conservatives are bitter and angry because it's part of their psychological makeup, not because they are losing some incremental game. Conservatives have been winning for half a century, and it is the progressives who have been forced to retreat, inch by inch.
ReplyDeleteBut my point is its not incremental. Once they lose on healthcare, they lose forever. Gay rmarriage-it will never go back. Same thing with race. Once the genie's out of the bag that's it.
ReplyDeleteRight now in America some things have happened that you'd never thought you'd see happen again-like putting the private colleges in their place.
It's in their incremental makeup because they're always in sudden death despite all their victories.
Of course, it depends what you mean by winning for half a century-which would take us roughly to the time of Kennedy.
Do you mean socialism? If so then maybe you're right but even I'm not a socialist just a moderate liberal.
I'd say this-liberals for the first time in a long time have more to be happy about in the US than Europe as witnessed by Germany and Greece last week