Saturday, March 27, 2010
Tyranny of the Majority
Strong possibility, even probability, the Tea Party protests will fall far short of their intent. For a few reasons.
First is that "opposition" to health care reform legislation is not a unified "repeal & replace." Between now & November it'll become more difficult to sell that view broadly. "Keep & repair" is already gaining. S0me of the opposition expressed in polls was from liberals.
Second, we can count on Tea Partiers to supply news media & You Tube with a steady supply of outrageously bigoted & foolish sound bites (Today it's a rendition of "New York, New York" sure to irritate every Sinatra & Yankee fan). It's not a disciplined movement. That's why it attracts screaming knuckleheads waving placards with misspelled words.
Third, their rallies have a sameness of tone & presentation. America gets bored. Except with Sarah Palin. She has celebrity staying power, much more for celebrity than actual political popularity.
Fourth, the "tyranny of the majority" phrase is code for white conservative protestants complaining about Democratic coalition politics when the long term demographics of America are irreversibly turning against white conservative protestants. Nearly the entire history of the United States is a tyranny of the white protestant majority. One Roman Catholic president. 32 Jewish senators, most of them current or recent. 6 black senators, 2 of them during Reconstruction. Antebellum federal government was usually a tyranny of the Southern minority, thanks to the 3/5th's of a human article of the Constitution. So no matter who has the power, it's a tyranny to those who don't have it.
Fifth, the near total lack of human empathy expressed by The Tea Party movement aggravates a substantial number of evangelicals.
If you want to write off African-Americans, Hispanics, Jews, gays & their friends & families, political centrists, & most people with college educations, go ahead & try to put together a majority coalition. Make all the noise you can. I recognize the white underclass base in the Tea Party, but there's nothing new or novel about America's white underclasses being stubbornly - violently - reactionary rather than smart. Remember, no president in the history of this nation helped them more than Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
First is that "opposition" to health care reform legislation is not a unified "repeal & replace." Between now & November it'll become more difficult to sell that view broadly. "Keep & repair" is already gaining. S0me of the opposition expressed in polls was from liberals.
Second, we can count on Tea Partiers to supply news media & You Tube with a steady supply of outrageously bigoted & foolish sound bites (Today it's a rendition of "New York, New York" sure to irritate every Sinatra & Yankee fan). It's not a disciplined movement. That's why it attracts screaming knuckleheads waving placards with misspelled words.
Third, their rallies have a sameness of tone & presentation. America gets bored. Except with Sarah Palin. She has celebrity staying power, much more for celebrity than actual political popularity.
Fourth, the "tyranny of the majority" phrase is code for white conservative protestants complaining about Democratic coalition politics when the long term demographics of America are irreversibly turning against white conservative protestants. Nearly the entire history of the United States is a tyranny of the white protestant majority. One Roman Catholic president. 32 Jewish senators, most of them current or recent. 6 black senators, 2 of them during Reconstruction. Antebellum federal government was usually a tyranny of the Southern minority, thanks to the 3/5th's of a human article of the Constitution. So no matter who has the power, it's a tyranny to those who don't have it.
Fifth, the near total lack of human empathy expressed by The Tea Party movement aggravates a substantial number of evangelicals.
If you want to write off African-Americans, Hispanics, Jews, gays & their friends & families, political centrists, & most people with college educations, go ahead & try to put together a majority coalition. Make all the noise you can. I recognize the white underclass base in the Tea Party, but there's nothing new or novel about America's white underclasses being stubbornly - violently - reactionary rather than smart. Remember, no president in the history of this nation helped them more than Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
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"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
I've been reading a lot of critiques of Republican electoral strategy lately (mostly in the NYT). The nation is changing; its demographics are changing; David Frum is right; how could the Republicans be so stupid. It's always a mistake to assume that the opposition is merely stupid. The Republicans are making a bet on the future. They're betting that all these poor and middle class voters (all of whom are benefited enormously by the new healthcare reforms) don't vote. And the Republicans' own small, angry, misinformed base DOES vote. In lockstep. Especially in disproportionately represented Mountain States like Wyoming (Hello Dick Cheney!). Republicans don't need all the voters, or even a significant minority of the voters. They just need the voters who actually vote.
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: 8:32 PM
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