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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Republican Party Is Racist and Soulless. Just Ask This Veteran GOP Strategist.
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He huffed that the Republican Party had not merely drifted away from its core positions, as sometimes occurs with political parties: Fair trade, balanced budgets, character, family values, standing up to foreign adversaries like Russiawere all against that now. You have to ask, Does someone abandon deeply held beliefs in three or four years? No. It means you didnt ever hold them. He added: I feel like a guy who was working for Bernie Madoff.
Stevens, an erudite fellow who is also a novelist and a travel writer, has become an emblematic ex-Republican. He once believed in GOP ideals and ideas. Now he saw it all as a huge con. His new book is a confession and cri de coeur. The first line is blunt: I have no one to blame but myself. In these pages, Stevens self-flagellates, calling himself a fool for his decades of believingand lying to himselfthat the Republican Party was based on a core set of values. Acknowledging his role, Stevens writes, So yes, blame me. Blame me when you look around and see a dysfunctional political system and a Republican Party that has gone insane. The book offers one overarching prescription for the GOP: Burn it to the ground and start over.
In our conversation, Stevens exploded with loathing for the party he once faithfully (and lucratively) served. He rejected the common view that Trump had hijacked the GOP. No, he explained, the triumph of know-nothing Trumpism marked the culmination of an internal conflict that had existed for decades between the partys dark side and its professed ideals. Even William F. Buckley Jr., often hailed as a grand public intellectual and the founding father of the modern conservative movement, was a stone-cold racist in the 1950s, Stevens pointed out. (Buckley at that time considered white people more advanced and more fit to govern.)
A lot of us in the party liked to believe the dark side was a recessive gene, but its a dominant theme, Stevens, a seventh-generation Mississippian who was named for Confederate Gen. Jeb Stuart, told me. And its all about race. The Republican Party is a white party and there still are more white people than non-white people. So that is whom the party aims ateven if this will eventually be a losing proposition as the nations demographics continue to shift. Ronald Reagan achieved a landslide victory in 1980 by bagging 56 percent of white voters; 28 years later, John McCain lost with 55 percent of white voters. Perhaps the partys fixation on white voters can work one more time with Trump in 2020. But were talking about the Confederacyliterally, Stevens said.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/08/racism-republican-party-stuart-stevens/?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=naytev&utm_medium=social
Blue Owl
(50,352 posts)lisa58
(5,755 posts)It took Trump to see it? You werent looking very hard.
Skittles
(153,150 posts)the only difference is Trump used a blow horn instead of a dog whistle
lisa58
(5,755 posts)crickets
(25,963 posts)Celerity
(43,333 posts)underpants
(182,786 posts)Wow. Great read.
Initech
(100,065 posts)The cat has been let out of the bag and after 40 years of brain melting 24/7 propaganda, it's not going to be put back any time soon.
RainCaster
(10,869 posts)UTUSN
(70,684 posts)Try Harder
(12 posts)There appears to be a wide diagonal geographical swath across your country, starting in eastern Washington and ending in Florida, where no amount of reasoning will ever persuade poorly educated and insular people that the future can be so much better for the whole planet. And although one might hope that coming generations would change this political demographic, I have not seen evidence that this is possible. Q Anon, anti vaxers, Trumpy racists, are just the 2020s version of the KKK and good ole boys, and breeding more of them is a source of pride, not shame. And don't even get me started on truck balls and Nascar. My advice is cut them loose before they take you down with them. And while you're at it send the eastern part of BC and all of Alberta with them because I've lived in both and don't see a big difference. Imagine the entire west coast as one big trading block, and Ontario, Quebec and the east joining the economic powerhouse of the American north east. The logistics of the split are not insurmountable. I have paid close attention since Nixon, and try as I might and wish as I must, I see no other solution. Perhaps 50 years exiled would change their evil ways?
machoneman
(4,006 posts)FL, maybe TX (I hope not), SC and a few other may gain red staters moving out of unfriendly blue states (they think they are at least) to havens for white folks. Poor whites, poor is relative here, in states like ND, SD, ID, MT, IA and a few other states will always be there and vote R no matter what. Only saving grace is, sadly, COVID-19 will reduce their numbers but not enough to count in the voting booth. Efforts to 'convert' these soulless folks would be wasted.
We need to convert more near-big city (i.e. far suburban and further out small towns) voters to go blue. Easier said than done but it should reap some rewards. At the least, we'd gain more state representation and maybe even more governorships.
Duppers
(28,120 posts)apnu
(8,756 posts)We (liberals, progressives) have known this since the 80s.
Glad you finally saw the light.
Response to JonLP24 (Original post)
CatLady78 This message was self-deleted by its author.
DownriverDem
(6,228 posts)a rightie in the south told me that only black people are Dems. I was in shock.