(Cross-posted at My Left Wing)
I'll be brief. A comment I wrote in thereisnospoon's diary late last night got me to thinking, and anytime that happens, I have to write it down immediately, just so the next morning I can be sure I wasn't just dreaming.
OK, here it is: Not to rain on anyone's parade, but I've figured out the Republicans' strategy for winning the midterm elections in November. And it's simple but brilliant. An old tune played on a new instrument. A tried and true formula that will resonate with their base, and has just enough veneer of rationality and respectability to allow them to say it in public without being hooted off the stage.
Ooooo, these guys are good. To plumb the depths of those dank and fetid places where the Republican strategist's mind lives, follow me (if you dare!) below the fold.
See if any of
these snippets from a once very popular political leader sound familiar:
"Why does the world shed crocodile's tears over the richly merited fate of a small . . . minority? ... I ask the [American] people: Are you prepared to receive in your midst these well-poisoners of the [American] people and the universal spirit of Christianity? We would willingly give everyone of them a free [bus] ticket and a [hundred-dollar bill] for travelling expenses, if we could get rid of them."
Or how about this:
This legislation is not anti-[immigrant], but pro-[American]. The rights of [Americans] are thereby to be protected against destructive [immigrant] influences.
Or this:
He stressed [that these legislative measures] served to protect the [immigrant], and this was proved by the fact that since the passing of the restrictive measures anti-[immigrant] sentiment in the country decreased.
Want another? OK:
The [illegal immigrants], because of their own lack of productive capacity, are not able to build up their own territorial state. Rather, they need the work and creative activity of other nations as a base for their own existence. The existence of the [illegal immigrants] themselves thus becomes that of a parasite within the life of other peoples . . . To reach [their goal] . . . the [illegal immigrant] uses all weapons which correspond to the whole complex of his being. Domestically, he fights within the individual nations first for equality and then for superiority.
Okay, so I modified the quotes just a little to give them a more timely flavor. But if you just substitute "Jew" for "immigrant" and "German" for "American," you'll understand.
Get the picture? It's real simple:
The Republicans have found a scapegoat in illegal immigrants (Republican-speak for "Mexicans"). And - if the need arises - in another brown-skinned people: Arabs.
In my comment in last night's thread, the matter under discussion was what it would take for the Democrats to win in November. The diarist's thesis was that the Dems have not been perceived by the general voting public as having offered up a forward-looking plan with specific action items, but rather have been seen to be merely "against" the all nasty things the Republicans have done.
I remarked that if the public discontent over any particular bad thing can be laid at the feet of the party in power, the Democrats will pick up votes. And given that there's a lot of bad stuff going on right now - high gasoline prices, generally dismal economy for those earning less than $200,000 a year, a quagmire of a war in Iraq, Republican politicians and appointees neck-deep in corruption and slime, unprecedented erosion of Americans' civil liberties, etc. - all of that could bode well for Democratic prospects in November's elections, if they play their cards right.
BUT - if the Republicans can find a scapegoat for all of the bad things that are happening - or at least for the bad things that most viscerally affect the majority of disaffected American voters - then, hey presto! - they've turned chicken shit into chicken salad, and they will be in business as usual on November 8.
The Republicans are expert at using fear to drive their base. Ever hear the phrase, "September the 11th"? Maybe once or twice?
September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th!
PAY NO ATTENTION TO THAT MEAGER PAYCHECK WITH NO MEDICAL BENEFITS!
PAY NO ATTENTION TO THAT $80 TANKFUL OF GAS AND RECORD OIL-COMPANY PROFITS!
PAY NO ATTENTION TO THOSE ILLEGAL WIRETAPS AND DATA MINING OF ALL OF YOUR PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS!
PAY NO ATTENTION TO THAT DROWNED CITY!
PAY NO ATTENTION TO THOSE 2,500 DEAD SOLDIERS AND THEIR 18,000 WOUNDED BUDDIES!
PAY NO ATTENTION TO THAT $9 TRILLION NATIONAL DEBT!
PAY NO ATTENTION TO THOSE INDICTED AND CONVICTED REPUBLICANS!
September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th, SEPTEMBER THE 11TH!
But now, Republicans have seized upon a new scapegoat, an external force that they can paint as responsible for many of the woes that have befallen Joe Sixpack and his brethren, a literally alien population that arouses visceral fear and panic amid much of the voting public in this country:
Why, it's the ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS!
<cue threatening, conspiratorial music>
Yes, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS are responsible for rising gas prices! ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS are responsible for the dismal performance of our economy! ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS have drained our public resources, they dilute our culture and heritage, they overrun our public schools, they threaten our border security, they undermine the very foundations of our democracy!
Well, heck, just listen to what Bill O'Reilly had to say about it, f'cryin' out loud!
[T]he newspaper [New York Times] and many far-left thinkers believe the white power structure that controls America is bad, so a drastic change is needed.
According to the lefty zealots, the white Christians who hold power must be swept out by a new multicultural tie, a Rainbow Coalition, if you will.
<cue threatening, conspiratorial music again, only louder>
And here's his Fox colleague, fellow Bigot-In-Arms John Gibson, on his "The Big Story" a week ago:
[D]o your duty. Make more babies . . . By far, the greatest number [of children under five] are Hispanic. You know what that means? Twenty-five years and the majority of the population is Hispanic . . To put it bluntly, we need more babies.
<threatening, conspiratorial music CRESCENDO!>
Geez! As I wrote in a diary a few days ago:
Holy crap - I thought I was hearing a bad sound clip from O Brother, Where Art Thou? - y'know, the part where Homer Stokes is wearin' the big pointy hood, and all the other folk around him are wearin' the same?
Brothers! We are foregathered here to preserve our hallowed culture'n heritage! From intrusions, inclusions and dilutions! Of culluh! Of creed! Of our ol'-time religion! We aim to pull evil up by the root! Before it chokes out the flower of our culture'n heritage! And our WOMEN! Let's not forget those ladies, y'all, lookin' to us for p'tection! From darkies! From Jews! From PAPISTS! And from all those smart-ass folk say we come descended from the MONKEYS! That's not my culture'n heritage! Izzat your culture'n heritage?
In case you missed it:
HISPANIC MEN WILL RAPE YOUR WOMEN, STEAL YOUR JOB, AND MOVE INTO YOUR HOUSE.
(Unless we white folk have more babies than them - then we can kick their asses. So GET OUT AND VOTE!!)
Brown - it's the new Jew.
.
.
(Diarist's note: And no, just to be clear, I am in NO WAY comparing the PLIGHT of immigrants to the unspeakable atrocities of the Holocaust - I am simply, at the risk of invoking Godwin, pointing out that immigrants are being used as scapegoats, in much the same way Jews were after World War I in Germany. Thanks for bearing with me on that.)
