tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20417751.post2308491560888494629..comments2024-01-22T18:22:29.391-08:00Comments on hedera's corner: Freedom of Speechhederahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01696592301686568456noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20417751.post-20735092293446459422010-05-24T07:57:14.187-07:002010-05-24T07:57:14.187-07:00For several decades, there was been a debate withi...For several decades, there was been a debate within the Republican Party, as to whether to sacrifice what once passed for intelligent politicking--designed to appeal to educated middle- and upper middle-class voters--or to go after the yahoos who once belonged to the Democratic Party.<br /><br />Republican strategists saw that there was a big segment of the country that would respond to hot-button issues like religious dogma and racial prejudice, gun rights and abortion, immigration and government regulation. So they set out, very deliberately and expediently, to exploit this constituency. <br /><br />And it worked. Beginning with Goldwater, continuing with Nixon and Reagan and Bush II, the Republican Party embraced the "side-issues" as a way of seducing the uninformed and "forgotten" voters. Turning Americans against their own government, they managed to convince people that government was "the problem," when in fact their real agenda was as it had traditionally always been: Protect the rich and the corporations, hold back the flood of social programs, keep the electorate in check. They hardly ever talked about how capital was exploiting people--that was just how the market worked, and business was what made America great. All the while harping about fetuses and gun rights and quotas and "elites" and Christian "val-yas". And middle- and lower-class Americans--god love'em--bought it hook, line and sinker. The upper classes liked it too--after all, they'd paid for the propaganda. <br /><br />There are perfectly rational reasons for wanting the things Republicans once advocated openly. Low taxes, limited government, conservative foreign policy; self-reliance, individual initiative, incentive-driven legislation. But these don't sell particularly well in Kentucky or Indiana or Arizona. It's much more effective to get people worked up over emotional issues, which have little or nothing to do with the real public policy issues that effect everyone. Get people ranting about abortion, and they forget that Hersey closed its local factory and sent 5000 jobs to Mexico last year. Whip up a good demonstration about those illegals stealing jobs from motel workers, and people will forget about that 800 billion we gave to Wall Street bankers to "save us" from another 1930's style depression. <br /><br />But people are stupid. You can get them to do anything, with a diverting little charming dog-and-pony show.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.com