I am sorry, but when you culturally and electorally disenfranchise a demographic, often they will respond to someone who offers them hope within the frame of that demographic coming out on top - and the hope-givers are not the pragmatic realists the President represents, but mostly Rightwing recidivists intent on viewing what was through rose-coloured glasses and with no aim for any good, but making these poor people feel good. Shame on the Democratic party of forty years ago for turning its back on a significant portion of what was its base.
Rick Santorum has now become what pundits are calling a blue-collar messiah for the working class. He appeals to a demographic which has been shunned by the Democratic party for the past forty years: the white working class. Most are uneducated or undereducated, socially conservative and people of faith.
A Rick Santorum would not be possible as a leader amongst this lot, had they not been fed a diet of fear and self-loathing by the mainstream Republican party - fear of what the Democrats represent and lies that the Democratic Party had abandoned them - something the Democrats didn't try to dispel. How easy is it to believe all of that, when Bill Maher, who donated one million dollars to the President's PAC refers to the Alabama and Mississippi Primaries as "Toothless Tuesday," poking fun at what he perceives, from the culturally perfect (not) Left Coast as the archetypical inbred Southerner, not even one generation removed from DeliveranceLand?
There is as much of a cultural divide existant now in the Republican Party which could add to the colossus of a culture war which will explode upon our nation after the Republican National Convention, a culture war that will determine which way our country will proceed after the November election.
You can read about the conflict within the Republican Party here.
It just troubles me that I see, not only in the United States, but in Britain and Europe, a worrying trend of a working class demographic, feeling so abandoned by parties which formerly served their interests, that they turn to Rightwing demagogues, in hope of economic, religious and cultural salvation.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ... Redux.
Rick Santorum has now become what pundits are calling a blue-collar messiah for the working class. He appeals to a demographic which has been shunned by the Democratic party for the past forty years: the white working class. Most are uneducated or undereducated, socially conservative and people of faith.
A Rick Santorum would not be possible as a leader amongst this lot, had they not been fed a diet of fear and self-loathing by the mainstream Republican party - fear of what the Democrats represent and lies that the Democratic Party had abandoned them - something the Democrats didn't try to dispel. How easy is it to believe all of that, when Bill Maher, who donated one million dollars to the President's PAC refers to the Alabama and Mississippi Primaries as "Toothless Tuesday," poking fun at what he perceives, from the culturally perfect (not) Left Coast as the archetypical inbred Southerner, not even one generation removed from DeliveranceLand?
There is as much of a cultural divide existant now in the Republican Party which could add to the colossus of a culture war which will explode upon our nation after the Republican National Convention, a culture war that will determine which way our country will proceed after the November election.
You can read about the conflict within the Republican Party here.
It just troubles me that I see, not only in the United States, but in Britain and Europe, a worrying trend of a working class demographic, feeling so abandoned by parties which formerly served their interests, that they turn to Rightwing demagogues, in hope of economic, religious and cultural salvation.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ... Redux.
I'm glad you posted this, Emilia. A few short hours ago, I sent a scathing email to Johnny Isakson, one of my senators from GA. He is telling the people of GA, and anyone else who will listen, that the democrats haven't submitted a budget in 1,000 days. He never mentions that a budget submitted by democrats in the House has as much chance of passing as a person has of surviving without a spacesuit in outer space. After reading this, I went on a research quest and discovered that PolitiFact rated this as mostly false. In my email, I questioned him as to why he would spread this sort of misinformation and reminded him that spreading misinformation of any type by members of either party is not honorable. I asked him to STOP this type of behavior and reminded him that not all of us in GA are brain dead and/or unaware of all of the lies that members of the so-called "Party of God" push 24/7/365. I'm sick of it. I don't expect a personal response from him, but I certainly hope that the aide who reads my email says something to him about its contents.
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