The Democratic leadership would be wise to pay close attention to the strategy being employed by the RNC in its promotion of presidential candidates for the 2012 election.
When John McCain headed the Republican ticket in 2008, all polls indicated that voter turnout would be minimal. As a result of his history of moderation and compromise, McCain had little or no support from the Republican base. To prevent the Republican Party from becoming little more than a political nuisance, the RNC recruited the unknown Sarah Palin to activate this block of voters. Palin, an overripe former beauty queen, evolved into a substandard actress playing the role of a lifetime. Each time she diverted from her script, she exposed herself for the ignoramus she truly is. Nonetheless, she successfully energized the Republican base. When Lyndon Johnson signed the Equal Rights Amendment into law in 1966, he turned to Barry Goldwater and stated, “I have just handed the South over to the Republican Party for the next generation,” (he certainly underestimated that time frame). Racism is a toxic byproduct of ignorance and Palin speaks for as well as to the ignorant.
Despite losing the election, the Republican Party introduced a new and viable strategy to the political process (i.e. the decoy candidate). Three years into the Obama Presidency, this same scam is being multiplied nine-fold. The Republican Party has produced a pseudo-candidate to represent every faction within its core electorate. The die-hard White Supremacists are represented along with the Religious Hypocrites. There is a representative for the academic dropouts who never read an entire book cover-to-cover. The gun-toting wanna-be cowboys are spoken for along with the proverbial corporate sympathizers. Everyone can choose his/her favorite flavor. To diffuse allegations that the Tea Party is racist, the financial backers of that movement have hired Godfather Herman Cain. Cain and all of his cheerleaders are about money, end of story. They will spew the rhetoric of the highest bidder and, thanks to the sterling efforts of the Republican-stacked Supreme Court, the American people have no way of knowing who exactly is financing the venture.
This circus will likely come to an abrupt conclusion shortly before the 2012 Republican convention (in Palin tradition). At that time, the RNC will produce a unifier who will promise to represent all of these disparate interests – someone like Jeb Bush, for instance. As previously instructed, all of the above-mentioned quasi- tribal leaders will throw their support behind this individual, take their payoffs, and assume their positions in the new government.
The Democratic leadership should remain on guard, the bait and switch is alive and well and all it takes is money – the billionaires and corporate interests that own the Republican Party lock, stock, and barrel, have plenty of it.
