re: #172 Charles

re: #166 Sharmuta

I really think the issue is backlash to culture shock.

It is no longer a question of fiscal responsibility when talking about the GOP. I am not coming to take away the point that the GOP lost traditional Republican votes over their fiscal mismanagement. Rather, I am saying that the GOP has been slowly but surely evicting that part of its make up for the better part of two decades.

The GOP is not about fiscal responsibility anymore. They are not about any of the old party planks that conservatism used to mean.

The new definitions of the GOP are based on fear, isolationism and a certain culture shock that is terrified of a changing world it does not comprehend. The message isn’t really about health care or any of the other things people are up in arms about. The proof of that is that the typical member of the GOP could not tell you a single accurate thing about the issue.

The issues come down to race, anti-science and xenophobia.

The issue comes down to a bunch of ignorant people who define America as a certain form of white Christian confection, faced with science they do not understand, an economy that seems a lottery and a perceived lack of position in a land they once thought was their own. They feel besieged by other races. They feel besieged by gay people. They feel besieged by scientists who tell them that evolution happened and that worse, they will have to change their lifestyle because of AGW. They feel out of control and that their nation no longer is their own.

It all adds up to a certain brimming hysteria based on a very false, but very real sense of persecution. They see themselves as just these guys, who were wherever, and suddenly their world changed in ways they do not understand, and that makes demands on them they do not want to fulfill.

Many are OK with the idea of a brown person - over there, away from themselves. But being asked to accept them, and women, and gay people as equals and leaders is too much. Many are OK with the idea of a conservation efforts in a national park, but being demanded to take responsibility for their own pollution is too much. Stem cells seem like Satan’s work. Many might be OK with the idea of other religions - over there, but they really do suspect Obama’s Christianity. The idea of a non- Christian president is too much. The education issue is huge too. These people know they are not well educated. A well educated intellectual president only makes them feel even less in control of a world that has left them behind. It’s all too much for them to comprehend. It all just adds up to culture shock.

So the reality is that the GOP, and the message of the paleocons and the Ron Paul types and perky people like Sarah Palin, will only get more shrill and more afraid and that the sorts of fiscal conservatism that used to be the GOP are no longer relevant to the GOP.