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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIs the GOP being run by the descendants of the Southern slave-owning aristocracy?
Human beings make models ('hypotheses' in scientific terms) to explain how things work. In science, a hypothesis is judged by its utility in explaining known phenomenon and it's predictive capabilities; that is, how well does it explain new phenomena? Progressive futurist Sara Robinson has offered an interesting hypothesis to explain the behavior and ideology of the Republican party over the last few decades. Conservative Southern Values Revived: How a Brutal Strain of American Aristocrats Have Come to Rule America.
Ms. Robinson sees American politics as an historical struggle between elites:
//snip
Ms. Robinson does seem to see rule by elites as inevitable in "a society as complex as ours."
Ms. Robinson devotes considerable time to discussing how these differences in Yankee and Southern definitions of 'liberty' explain much of the Republican disdain for government and public service; when a Southern aristocrat seeks public office it's to further enrich his class, not to serve the 'public' good.
That world view explains a lot about the GOP in recent decades: How they've been able to reconcile the worldview of atheist Ayn Rand with the evangelical Christianity that forms a major backbone of their strength; Rand "updated the ancient slaveholder ethic for the modern age". It also explains why they're able to offer up "someone for president who so brazenly epitomizes the excesses of casino capitalism that have nearly destroyed the economy and overwhelmed our democracy," as Robert Reich has stated in a recent post.
Their disdain for public life even extends to a disdain for 'the D word:' Democracy. Part of the rewriting of history by the Texas State Board of Education is to edit out references to "democratic societies" and "representative democracy" and substitute "republic."
Sara Robinson is a progressive voice in a field usually dominated by conservatives and libertarians. So many of the writers bearing the 'futurist' label spend most of their time 'off in the ozone,' talking about transhumanism and life extension (While the US continues to fall behind the rest of the developed world in life expectancy; Sara Robinson focuses mostly on current trends and their future consequences.
She's currently the editor for AlterNet's Visions, an excellent resource for discussion of futurism from a progressive viewpoint.
LiberalLoner
(9,762 posts)TheWraith
(24,331 posts)Dan
(3,579 posts)that the GOP got in bed with the south (during the Johnson administration) and renewed that relationship with Nixon and Reagan.... and now the GOP is inflected with that southern virus racism.... not sure what the cure is, if any..
Maybe the GOP felt that they could use the southerns while not getting the infection... but anyone with any exposure to that southern virus could have told them the result