Robert Reich chats with former Repub Congressman: "So What Do You REALLY Think of these candidates"

[Solly Mack]

25. True. They won't admit it. The anonymous Republican likes to pretend they're the rational ones.

They dress themselves up as establishment, calling themselves the reasonable Republicans. They even get others to see them that way. Like they're somehow better, and can't be blamed for the direction their party is going. It's not their fault the Tea Party took hold. It's not their fault for the level of vitriol and absurdity displayed by the 2016 GOP candidates. They like to forget they lifted Sarah Palin onto the national stage.

The anonymous Republican says "urban youth" & "inner cities" when talking about people of color - you know, as opposed to the openly racist ones. Never mind they're both saying the exact same thing. Just because you use the dog whistle instead of the more blatant wording doesn't make you better. A polite and politic racist is still a racist. But suddenly, when compared side by side, the one wearing the suit and using the cloaked language is seen as the more acceptable alternative - when the end result is the same.

The anonymous Republican hides his/her graft behind words and phrases such as trickle down and compassionate conservative. The bolder avarice and cruelty speaks of poor people being lazy and demanding handouts. Yet, really, there is no difference in thinking - or outcome.

It's almost as if the anonymous Republican needs us to understand that they never meant any of it to be damaging - that it's not their fault that the ignorant and the vicious answered the call of the dog whistle - that it was just politics. All about winning; nothing personal or harmful intended. And that's the problem when thinking of politics as a game. We're people, not game pieces on a board, to be moved about by a scorched earth, winner take all attitude that leaves us at the mercy of the corrupt; ever victims of their ideological whims and fancies.


Sorry. I'm in a mood.