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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe right’s paranoid tribalism: New poll reveals how the left should attack extremists
The rights paranoid tribalism: New poll reveals how the left should attack extremistsby Tim Donovan at Salon
http://www.salon.com/2014/04/30/the_rights_paranoid_tribalism_new_poll_reveals_how_the_left_should_attack_extremists/
"SNIP......................
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First of all, lets consider the sample group. As the poll notes, Question was asked of those who said there has been an increase between the rich and everyone else in the U.S. in the last 10 years. We shouldnt draw too many broad conclusions from these results, as Pew only polled individuals who agreed with the basic question. Whats so interesting here is what that self-sampling reveals about the mind of the tribal Republican: while many are willing to concede to inequality is a real and growing problem, they see the reasons for its existence entirely differently (as other recent poll results have borne out). The main responses that the American people provided for our growing inequality are actually fairly accurate, as long as one considers each of them as part of a larger tapestry [editor's note: This post initially stated that Pew provided potential answers, when in fact the question was open-ended]. But the final response, popular among Republicans, attributes our growing inequality to work ethic of poor/govt assistance programs. If this poll aims to help us parse the opinions of the American public, it is suspect at best but as a piece of blatant political theater, created for the express purpose of painting Republicans as insane and unreasonable, its quite brilliant.
Consider the strategy: You take a topic like income inequality, which is already a part of our tribal political debate, and then provide a predictable subset of extreme Republicans with an easy, pre-coded answer (work ethic, government assistance). Letting people blame income inequality on the poor for not pulling themselves up by their bootstraps well enough is just too easy; it gives these mouth-breathers a venue to express their tribal rage.
This is not to excuse Republican leadership, who are largely to blame for putting their party in this trap. For decades, theyve encouraged and supported the worst voices in their movement. The Southern strategy, which aimed to exploit white Southerners disdain for the Civil Rights Act and all it seemed to represent, quickly became the original sin of modern conservatism.
The Southern strategy essentially codified a tribal paranoia into right-wing politics; for decades, Republican politicians cynically exploited this advantage against Democrats, starting with the Civil Rights Act, up to Willie Horton, and on to gay rights in our own era. But times (and demographics) are achangin, and the bigotry and implicit racism that is still so prevalent among the rights base is quickly becoming a political liability, an ugly feature of their politics that they can neither contain nor destroy.
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The right’s paranoid tribalism: New poll reveals how the left should attack extremists (Original Post)
applegrove
May 2014
OP
This totally explains why when you say something general, like inequality, the base
applegrove
May 2014
#1
And so do you give the base another reason for inequality like low taxes on the rich? Or do
applegrove
May 2014
#3
applegrove
(118,622 posts)1. This totally explains why when you say something general, like inequality, the base
hears "Lazy people" while democrats here "tax cuts on the rich". Great graph. Shows why we need to be very specific when talking to the patsies on the right.
GeorgeGist
(25,319 posts)2. 91% of Republicans don't think work ethic of poor/government assistance ...
is the reason for income inequality.
So attacking their policies on that route is like swatting flies while the thieves steal your paycheck.
applegrove
(118,622 posts)3. And so do you give the base another reason for inequality like low taxes on the rich? Or do
you leave out a specific reason so they will default to work ethic/government assistance. What do you do if you want to talk to people about inequality and perhaps change a few hearts. You have to swat at the flies. Flies buzzing around the increasingly dead carcass of the American middle class is how the GOP got us here to begin with. It happened in tiny little increments over 30 years.