Tornados killed over 300 people in Alabama during the past few weeks, and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage. Johnny on the Spot, Alabama’s entire GOP delegation voted to cut the nation’s tornado forecasting system (involving satellites that track the weather, which if the GOP has its way will eventually fall out of orbit and crash into the earth and if there is a God in heaven start forest fires in Texas).
While the logic of this might escape normal Americans, or even a domesticated cat with an above-average IQ, it was unimpeachable for Tea Party acolytes. The idea, expressed by Republican leaders, was that by cutting the budget that protected people’s lives, the rich would have more money to invest in child labor in China and Pakistan. Thus, Alabamans would be protected from Big Gummit, if not tornados.
Admittedly this is like trying to follow the lyrics of a Sigur Ros song, but it demonstrates the dedication of the deficit hawks to their mania (and the power of their exiguous intelligence): Shock Capitalism. Whatever happens, whether a terrorist attack, an act of God, or the Cubs winning the World Series, conservatives will invariably propose that the appropriate response involves taking a hack at the federal budget and giving Paris Hilton and her insufferable chihauhau another tax cut.
But why, you ask, would any rational Alabaman vote for the republican politicians who seem intent on abandoning the state to whirlwinds and snakes? One answer might be that there are no rational Alabamans. But that’s glib. The real answer is that the Rightwing Noise Machine has a narrative: the Big Gummit shtick in which “government is the problem” including [fill in the blank here with every challenge every working person faces]. And the GOP is the bulwark against this looming Voldemort, assisted by brigades of the fighting superrich for freedom, Alabama Division. It’s a poorly written storyline, I grant you that, and it makes about as much sense as the business plan of the Underwear Gnomes in South Park. But it’s a narrative, and people can follow it, and that’s what counts.
In contrast, the Democrats have no counternarrative, or rather they have ceased to tell it. In favor of intoning policy, they have discarded the New Deal storyline of how democratic self-determination, backed by a robust federal government, can make the nation ever-more prosperous and fair. Those policies are good (mostly), the logic impeccable, the facts correct. But Alabama isn’t the Vulcan Council. It’s a bunch of hardworking people sitting across kitchen tables trying to make sense of their economic conditions. And so they cling to religion, guns and GOP narratives, and will continue to do so until progressives offer them not better policies, but a better story (after reading George Lakoff).
But until they do, do not visit Alabama in tornado season.
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