Glen Contrarian
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2013
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- Political Leaning
- Progressive
I don't even mean this to be condescending. On the dem side there is a centrist status quo candidate and a further left candidate to choose from. On the Republican side there is a religious conservative and whatever trump is. Kasich would seem to be a more standard non-emotion based GOP candidate but right now is mathematically out of the picture at this point.
If a Republican voter wanted to cast a vote for a policy-based candidate and not an emotion-based candidate at this point... They are screwed. That's a crappy place to be if you are a conservative policy wonk.
Thing is, there's larger issues at play than 'just' the GOP and the Democratic party. Most nations throughout history have a dominant race, ethnicity, or religion...and there are many instances of, when a different demographic begins to gain in power or influence, the dominant demographic "circles the wagons", so to speak, to preserve its own dominance.
The GOP set itself up to be front-and-center for this process with Nixon's "Southern Strategy", in which they reached out to the "negrophobes" of the Deep South who so strongly opposed the Civil Rights Act...and what was once the Democratic "Solid South" is now the strongest base of the GOP...and the leaders of the Deep South are in many cases the very children of those who opposed desegregation. It's not an accident that Mississippi never finalized ratification of the 13th Amendment banning slavery until 2013 (yes, 2013).
It was bad enough when the GOP flip-flopped on the Voting Rights Act, from near-total support to near-total opposition in just over two years...but they were only reflecting what the GOP rank-and-file was saying: "We want our country back!" I'm sure you remember the signs at the Tea Party rallies. But then came Trump, who tapped into the anti-WASP sentiment that had been growing decade-by-decade in the GOP and skyrocketed after the first presidential election of Obama.
In other words, what's going on now in the GOP is nothing different that has happened to many other nations in the past in times of major demographic shifts: the dominant demographic tends to do whatever is necessary to preserve its position of dominance. Please note that this isn't a conspiracy or a deliberate act on their part - it's the reaction of millions of people due a gradual shift in perception and attitude. And none of us can know how far this will go or how bad it can get.