The legend being told by my conservative friends is that President Obama got re-elected by the trick of telling black and brown people, the poor, the under employed, the elderly, the gay, people without health care, and the student what they wanted to hear.
What I try to point out is that black and brown people, the poor, the under employed, the elderly, the gay, people without health care and the student make up a majority of Americans.
One friend tells me that if I knew the truth, I’d have voted for Mitt Romney. When I inquire as to what the truth might be, my friend says that Obama won the election by telling black and brown people, the poor, the under employed, the elderly, the gay, people without health care, and the student what they wanted to hear.
This vicious circle repeats itself in discussion after discussion.
I tell my friend that the Republicans have to realize that there aren’t enough white people to win an election by appealing to them alone. My friend thinks I’m “playing the race card” (he actually says that phrase). I say, no, look at the statistics; Barack Obama got his ass handed to him by white men in the last election…he just won nearly every other constituency.
The Republican Party can’t win with the “Southern Strategy” any longer…unless they figure out a way to curtail the voting rights of black and brown people, the poor, the under employed, the elderly, the gay, people without health care, and the student.
The number of states trying some tactic to screw one group or all groups of Obama voters is growing every day. If the Republicans can keep Obama voters away from the polls, the Southern Strategy could eke out a victory one more time
This is a strategy that has a shelf life slightly longer than a fart in a tornado. Yet, it’s what Republicans cling to with all their strength. Those dirty, lousy Obama voters stole two elections by giving the President a majority over both John McCain and Mitt Romney in successive elections.
What my Republican friend is saying is that we cheated when we paid attention to what Republicans were saying and deciding we didn’t like the message that black and brown people, the poor, the under employed, the elderly, the gay, people without health care, and the student were all ruthlessly self-centered and lazy. Yep, we should just slap ourselves in the forehead with the heel of our hand and accept that we are the problem.
This is denial with a capital D-E-N-I-A-L.
Barack Obama didn’t win…he tricked people into voting for him. He never really had the experience to do a good job…he went from black guy to President without anything in between. He won’t compromise. He hates America…blah…blah…blah.
These people want nothing good for Barack Obama…that means they want nothing good for America. If Republicans don’t get their asses handed to them in the 2014 mid-term elections, they will get worse. If they get their asses handed to them, they will get worse.
Then we move into the 2016 pre-game.
The Republicans will try to block all the liberal voters they can while they double down on the crazy. They will use the “We weren’t Republican enough last time” strategy and come up with somebody like Rand Paul.
If Hillary Clinton beats some nouveau racist, libertarian, Tea Bagger like Rand Paul, the divide in America will widen. The fringe of the Republican Party will become the heart of the party. My Obama-hating friends will become my Hillary-hating friends, and America will spend another decade running in neutral.
That might be the last nail in our coffin…the rest of the world will pass us by. America will have an internal cold war or maybe regional civil war. We have it in us, you know. I hate to admit it, but we have barely tapped into the hatred generated by the demographic changes in America over the past 20 years…
I can’t imagine a solution inside my head…Any solution I dream up requires that people come to their senses and realize “a house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Currently, we are at a stalemate…unless one side or another gets a prohibitive majority in the House and the Senate, there can be no movement.
P. S.
I overheard two college-educated people (advanced degrees were involved) discussing a supposed, shocking rise in the formation of atheist mega-churches (military intelligence, jumbo shrimp) in America.
One of the two said they shouldn’t be allowed to form churches. When I asked why, the answer was that churches are for worshiping God, so by definition atheist churches should be illegal.
Just before this revelation of Judeo-Christian jurist prudence, the same pair were discussing the Second Amendment and how no one should mess with the Constitution…Dear (fill in the deity of your choice or none at all) help us.