The End Of A Republican Party

[BlueMTexpat]

Racial and cultural resentment have replaced the party’s small government ethos.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-end-of-a-republican-party/

While I can't say that I am not happy to see the GOP implode, articles like this make it even more important for Dems to be unified and GOTV for Hillary and Dem candidates in November. If a party with an extremely flawed candidate and a far-right social and political agenda can still pull off a win, then the phrase "complete and utter disaster" cannot be considered hyperbolic in any way.

But it is very sad to see a party that began the 20th-century with liberal ideals - and then began casting them aside bit by bit until Reagan finally killed whatever was left - become the bigoted, racist, POS party that the GOP has become today.

Moments of historical change in the course of a party’s life can be difficult to spot. In “Party Ideologies in America, 1828-1996,” political scientist John Gerring marks the beginning of the modern Republican Party as Herbert Hoover’s shifting campaign rhetoric in 1928 and 1932, when he talked more about the virtues of the American home and family than hard-tack economics. Hoover’s oratory about the progress of the individual being threatened by an overzealous government bureaucracy stuck around for the next eight decades, and the wisdom of generations has helped us discern that this was indeed the start of a new Republican era.

The shock of 2016, though, is just how self-evident the inflection point at which the Republican Party finds itself is; Trump is a one-man crisis for the GOP. The party has been growing more conservative and less tolerant of deviations from doctrine over the past decades, so what does it mean that a man who has freely eschewed conservative orthodoxy on policy is now the Republicans’ standard-bearer?

Many have assumed that adherence to a certain conservative purity was the engine of the GOP, and given the party’s demographic homogeneity, this made sense. But re-evaluating recent history in light of Trump, and looking a bit closer at this year’s numbers, something else seems to be the primary motivator of GOP voters, something closer to the neighborhood of cultural conservatism and racial and economic grievance rather than a passion for small government.

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[JNelson6563]

1. Pretty words, more simply put...

For decades now GOP pols have been talking to their base in dog whistles. Lots of winks and knowing smiles.

Since the ascent of right wing media (countered only by the not unbiased corporate media) has been going on for a long time, fueled by how comfortable people have become viciously attacking each other on social media, dog whistles are no longer enough. That sort of thing is for the weak. We need a white man who will stand up and tell us what we really want to hear! Those people all suck and we need to make America White, er, Great Again!!1!

No more dog whistles, we need a steady diet of hateful rhetoric directed at everyone we imagine is not us.

That is what happened to the GOP.

The End.

[BlueMTexpat]

2. You've definitely got the

gist.

[Nitram]

3. "Small government" meant getting rid of programs that I don't think directly benefit me personally.

Including programs and agencies that actually do, such as the EPA's Clean Water and Clean Air Act.

[RegexReader]

4. GOP has been in zombie mood for years with

the most common complaint I hear is that their base votes against the Democrat candidate and not FOR their own.

Hopefully, this election cycle will be the last time it drags its carcass around the election arena.

[BlueMTexpat]

5. Amen to that! eom