In the 1980’s, the Reagan Revolution swept the country. It was an awkward marriage of fiscal conservatives trying to deregulate or privatize as much as they could get their hands on (no matter the long term economic costs) and tricking dirt farmers in Kansas that they were holy rollers in order to do it. This has more or less set the tone for the conservative agenda ever since.
In 2000, George W. Bush ran as a staunch evangelical conservative, who had been personally “saved” by Christ from a charmed life of privilege and drinking. During this same time he also ran one of the dirtiest Presidential campaigns in the last century. According to Bush, God told him to run, but it’s still unclear if God also told him to spread a whisper campaign about John McCain’s adopted Bangladeshi daughter being his black illegitimate love child (and also that McCain might be a little bonkers from his time as a POW). It was the type of brazenly untrue personal attack Bush—and his campaign manager/puppet master Karl Rove—perfected when Bush ran for governor of Texas against hugely popular (and unmarried) Democrat Anne Richards and they started a whisper campaign she was a lesbian.
In 2008, they would really push the boundaries of “Fuck it, let’s just make shit up” campaigning by painting John Kerry’s honorable Vietnam service record as baloney. The Swift Boat Veterans group, an anti-Kerry group casting doubt on his service, was the first time a whisper campaign could be directly traced to Bush. It was the most desperate—turning what should have been a Kerry strength Bush stayed away from into a liability for Kerry—and boldest campaign move yet for Bush. But then again, he had the Lord on his side.
He ran a platform on making abortion illegal and outlawing gay marriage, tricking social conservatives into voting for him. The first two things he tried to do when he actually won re-election? Pass tort reform (making it harder to sue a corporation) and privatize social security so it could be as vulnerable as everything else on the Wall Street Ferris Wheel the following summer. Both things social conservatives really wanted but you’d be hard pressed to find any of the abortion protestors clamoring for.
It isn’t Earth shattering news to anybody that politicians playing the religious card might not actually be that religious (just look at the New York Republican, very married congressman a week back that got busted sending shirtless pictures of himself and pretending not to be married). However, the Republican fiscal agenda always seems to catch Alabama voters by surprise when it actually surfaces. No matter if it’s cutting unemployment/disability, trying to steal, I mean, sell a town’s water rights to a private company based in a larger city like Atlanta, passing rental laws that only benefit slumlords, making it impossible to sue an employer for wrongful termination, generally having some of the sorriest labor laws in the country, and busting any and all attempts at a union, Republicans are pretty similar to the mafia in that they cost you in a hundred different ways you might even notice.
People are aware that politicians are crooked. They just might not know that one party builds a “screw the masses” mentality into its philosophy. Historically, the Republican Party has only recently become synonymous with Bible thumping, but it has always been considered the rich man’s party. From Herbert Hoover doing nothing to help the working class during the great depression to Andrew Jackson—given the nickname of “The People’s President” because he was the first American President not from a wealthy family—being the first Democrat President a century earlier. The Republican Party ruled heavy from 1860 to 1932, with the Democrats electing only TWO presidents in this 72 year period. They got used to taking votes for granted, and when The Great Depression finally forced people to vote in FDR and a New Deal for the middle/lower class, America enjoyed it so much they elected just one Republican President (Dwight Eisenhower) from 1932 until 1968.
Republicans were scrambling, they began to rebrand themselves as the party of squares in the 1970’s—when groups like The Black Panthers and The Weather Underground were scaring the shit out of white people in Nebraska that would never actually see a member of either one—and whole heartedly embraced Christ love soon after. In the last 43 years, Democrats have lost 7 out of 11 presidential elections. Their popularity as the actual party of what Jesus Christ stood for (charity, tolerance, economic values that would be mostly defined as socialist under the Tea Party’s definition of it) waned as the new conservative agenda of making things illegal and finding nobility in becoming mega rich took over.
Now of course some people will say “If you’re saying the Republican Party is just faking their Jesus love to get people to vote for millionaire tax breaks, then duh” but some of those same people routinely vote Republican anyway. It’s like a victim of a Ponzi scheme who turns around and says they knew it was a scam but the con man just seemed like such a nice guy. Seeing people celebrate Reagan’s 100th birthday a few weeks ago and suggest he be placed on currency, it appears people are nostalgic for getting screwed all over again.
Alabama Liberal note: This kicks off a week of moral themed issues, so check back with us daily.
AWESOME ARTICLE. There are things in there that remind me of what my Granmother would tell me about history. If I wasnt married…..jk….
Will the fools who keep voting republican never learn? GOD!!!
Reminds me of that SNL China skit. We keep bending back and the republicans and they keep sticking it to us all based on these idiots voting them into power. WTF!
great article
nice people should be more aware they’re getting tricked
Thanks guys
Thanks to the Rush Limbaugh wannabees this stuff is usually taken for granted.
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