No Matter How Crazy They Get, The Republican Party Won't Abandon Its Base

[Yavin4]

The true constituency of the Republican party is the 1%. That's really who the Republicans work for and pass legislation for. However, by definition, the 1% do not have enough votes to win a "fair" election.

So, the Republicans need a loyal base whose primary interests do not conflict with those of the 1%. The Republican base care about abortion, contraception, prayer in school, God, homophobia, xenophobia, misogyny, etc. None of these things in any way conflict with the needs of the 1%.

Without the base, the Republicans would not be able to control the South which gives them a lot of votes in Congress.

Thus, the Republican base will get crazier and crazier, but do not look for the Republican party to do anything about it. They can't. They are nothing without their base.

[southernyankeebelle]

1. Until they lose a couple of big elections then you will see a change.

[brooklynite]

2. Unrec'd

It's an easy shot to say that it's all Big Business's fault; the reality is that the US population is fairly divided between conservatives and liberals (economic or social), and that hard right conservative fall into every economic strata. Saying that they're so stupid they can be easily manipulated by the 1% so as to vote against their interests is to mis-identify the problem. There is a not insubstantial share of the population that does not want someone else telling them what to do in their job or business, and as a consequence does not want their tax dollars going to help someone else. Even with an improving economy and a better message, that group will never disappear.

[Yavin4]

3. My Rebuttal

You said:

There is a not insubstantial share of the population that does not want someone else telling them what to do in their job or business, and as a consequence does not want their tax dollars going to help someone else. Even with an improving economy and a better message, that group will never disappear.

So, when Wall Street melted down in 2008, it was a Republican president that asked for and got bailouts from Congress. Or did I imagine that?

At the end of the day, the Republican party enacts what the 1% wants them to enact. Everything else is bluster, marketing, and bullshit.

In fact the entire conservative movement is pure bullshit. It's nothing more than a patchwork of lingering racial animus and misogyny, homophobia, and religious fundamentalism. It's a massive con built upon billions of dollars spent on propaganda that was paid for by the 1%, and your tax dollars will be spent on where the 1% want it to be spent.

[Cal33]

5. This does help to explain how come there are so many people who vote for the 1%. To it I would

add that 90% of the news media is also owned by the 1% -- which makes it so much easier
for them to brain-wash the masses with their distortions, propaganda and lies.

[K Gardner]

4. I live in the South, and I agree 100%.. and also what

the other poster said: Until they lose a major election over this garbage, it will NOT stop.

Definitely recommended.

[musicblind]

6. I think it will take at least a couple of major election loses because

they'll claim the first loss was a fluke.

But I live in the south as well... and I agree with you and the original post.

[salin]

7. and as those cycles occur ... if the rw base forces crazier and crazier positions

as a requirement for running for office (as we have seen in 2010 and in this 2012 cycle) - even in conservative areas, more and more younger voters will continue to think "wth"?

Leading to fewer voters in the base. If the push to the crazy keeps happening over several more voting cycles it won't just be a correction in the GOP (to pursue moderate votes in order to win major elections) - there may be one of those very rare (re: historical) moments where a party dies out/and is replaced with something else altogether as an opposition to the majority party.

[K Gardner]

8. wow...I got chills reading your

Die out theory! If only!!