Possibly. But I've been personally observing US politics since I was in my late teens and that was during the first Bush's era, and it seems that race has become a bigger issue, and a substitute for the economically unfair policies that are actually being espoused by the funders and strategists at the top. How do you get poor whites to vote in the interest of rich people? Play on the poor whites' fear of blacks/mexicans/muslims. In America, race is a substitute for economic class, and the Republicans had successfully convinced a lot of people, mostly white that they are ideologically closer to the wealthy, tax-evading 1% (of any race) than to other poor and middle class people (of any race other than white).
I think you're right. If you have a free 20 minutes or so you should read
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/matt-taibbi-on-the-tea-party-20100928and you'll see that you're on the same plane as a writer for a major publication. The problem is that there just isn't enough angry white guys in America anymore who are afraid of the dark swathy hordes. The only other way to retain power is to try some very undemocratic methods. You see some of it with this
voter suppression voter ID laws, but even so it will take a lot more to push the eligible electorate towards white older males. Republicans were counting on minorities not voting as much as they in 2008 but minorities came out in droves. Republicans simply have to widen their tent to stay relevent, and that means abandoning their racist, browns are lazy and stealing our jobs, Blacks are lazy and want welfare, Asians are stealing our jobs etc. That has to be ditched. They can still retain their small government mantra but they will have to ditch their racist strategies. On a side note they will have to soften their religious right connections too. Have religious people scream about the evils of society leads to embarrassing God wants rape babies incidents. Gay marriage is here to stay and the religious right will have to swallow that or becomes irrelevant. It puts them in a pickle because if your a poor white guy, who are you going to vote for? The party that's for cutting your Social Security, welfare, and unemployment benefits and giving tax cuts to some rich white guy who you'll never see? The racist strategy is the only thing holding these guys in the Republican party.
Topic: USA politics Low Content Thread