The modern GOP was forged when Richard Nixon launched his "Southern strategy" to lure away racist Whites away from the civil rights supporting Democrats and into the conservative camp. It was a brilliant short-term calculation. But unfortunately, it lost the larger bet, due to the repudiation of overt racism in America. So over the last few years, we've seen efforts by the GOP to atone for that breach in ethics, and to build a broader, more diverse party that can be competitive in an increasingly multi-hued America.
Epic fail.
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7 comments:
I'm not sure if you can really call 30+ years the short term.
i was confused by the post till i saw the epic fail link. as to the southern strategy i think its worked out pretty well. the conservative elite still have plenty of power and shifted the culture far enough right that its still going to be 20 years till we get moderately progressive culture if at all.
The arc of the demographic universe is long, but it bends away from old, white men.
Why not look at demographics and try to determine what the U.S. will be like in 30 plus years. Maybe the idea of a progressive country will hit the demograhic wall too.
Yes, clearly the demographic trend of the U.S. (less white and denominationally Christian) is moving us away from progressive ideas like multiculturalism, tolerance of religious differences (including of atheism and agnosticism), and acceptance of diverse sexualities and gender identities. Our generation and the ones coming after us are going to somehow regress into being our great-grandparents instead of retaining the values we now hold.
PG,
Do you really think that a U.S. that is majority black and Hispanic will be more tolereate of homosexuals, women, and the weak? Do you really believe that a country dominate by blacks and Hihspanics will be a multicultural paradise?
I think you should explain your model and how blacks and Hispanic culture will make the major changes needed to achieve our vision. Considering how hip whites are packing themsleves into Portland Ore or Vermont, I believe that actions speak louder than words.
superdestroyer,
I am amused by your referring to the demographic trend of the U.S. as "majority black and Hispanic." There are other kinds of non-whites out there, and their populations are growing at faster rates than the African-American population. (Compare the 2000 Census to the latest estimate from 2007: African-Americans have not grown as a percentage of the population, but are stalled at 12.8%, while Asians have gone from 4.2% to 4.4% in the same timespan.)
Also, African-Americans and Latinos tend toward higher levels of religiosity than other groups, but they also are subject to the same overall trend of decreasing religiosity that we're seeing for the entire population. You offer no explanation of why an overall trend toward increased acceptance of homosexuality would somehow leave African Americans and Latinos out, especially as surveys show that while they lag behind whites and Asians, they also have been reporting higher levels of acceptance over time.
I didn't realize that African Americans and Latinos had a problem "tolerating" women. Could you explain further? I thought people like you were supposed to be deeply freaked out by all those welfare recipients, which will be female-headed households. Also, who are "the weak"? Have African Americans and Latinos taken to throwing their hunchbacked babies off cliffs, a la the Spartans in "300"?
There are so many things I never realize until Superdestroyer shows up in a discussion and opens a whole new vista of hyper-patriarchal, anti-disability African American and Latino families to me. Though perhaps the greatest revelation of all is that Superdestroyer considers multiculturalism part of "our" vision, i.e. something he actually considers desirable. That rocks my world most of all.
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