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In reply to the discussion: The Rise of Donald Trump is a big flashing neon sign that something is very wrong in this country [View all]bklyncowgirl
(7,960 posts)Last edited Tue Aug 23, 2016, 12:13 PM - Edit history (1)
Now before I'm attacked by a swarm of angry hornets, let me explain.
In my opinion the foremost purveyor of this form of politics is the GOP. They have stoked the resentments of white people, particularly southern white males since Nixon came up with the Southen strategy all the while screaming and yelling about the Democrats catering to minorities, women and anyone who isn't a white male. With talk radio and Fox News conducting the orchestra conservative leaders played them like a violin.
The real trick is that while pushing this resentment, the conservative elites also pushed for lax immigration laws and trade agreements that seriously damaged non-college educated white men's ability to make a living. Of course they had the help of their friends in the Democratic Party to enact these changes so it was easy to put the blame on them as in "The Democrats want more Hispanics here so they can win elections". NAFTA of course was Bill Clinton's baby as TPP is Obama's.
It's as old a trick as America itself. What's surprising is that it took so long for these guys to figure it out.
The problem for the Democrats was that there was no way that they were going to reap the benefits of that anger. Guns, God and Gays politics had taken their toll and the Democratic party leadership had long transitioned from being a party of working class people to a socially liberal economically Conservative coalition in which labor played a smaller and smaller role. Besides the Democrats were the antithesis of everything they saw themselves to be culturally. Urban not rural, secular not pious, multicultural not "real Americans".
The election of a black Democrat was the last straw. When McCain and Romney went down to defeat it became clear. Their leadership had failed.
At any rate the party leaders have lost control. Racial slurs that were once couched in dog whistles are now chanted out loud. The peasants are at the gate and at their head is an orange haired con man, a New York billionaire born to wealth, no less, a man who who changes wives the way other men change thief underwear who rails at everything this army of hard working, pious country folk hate. It would be funny if it wasnt so serious.