If there ever was a day to write a Blues song beginning with "Woke up this morning. . ." today was the day. Every Liberal-Progressive pundit, professional and amateur, including myself, called the American election very wrong. On Monday, I asked a friend in DC if the Republican Party would reinvent itself or just continue to double down. I am still spitting out feathers and beaks today after that gaffe.
It has always seemed like the Republicans were going from disaster to disaster but with 20/20 hindsight, it was the Democrats who were barely hanging on while the Republicans set them up for complete destruction. This election was about Religion (Hillary is Satan) and Race (Trump rally chant: We hate Muslims. We hate Blacks. Time to take our country back). Nixon's Southern Strategy and Falwell's Moral Majority came to maturity and bore fruit.
Nixon was an old-time politician, followed a few years later by Reagan with HW as the power behind the throne. Clinton gave the Republicans practice in being totally uncooperative and wasting government money on politically biased investigations. Then came W with Cheney as the brains and power of the Presidency.
The Democrats' turn brought Obama to the plate. In the lead up to the 2008 election, the Republicans began serious HRC bashing with the SCOTUS Citizens United decision in 2010 opening the floodgates to corporate cash in time for the mid-term elections. The remake of the liberal Warren Court into a conservative Roberts Court was paying off.
The GOP ran McCain against Obama, a fair match until they added Sarah Palin as running mate. This introduced to the American public the idea that any idiot could seek the highest office in the land and as Obama commented you could draw a straight line from Palin to Trump.
The Religious Right, supposedly being used by Republicans to gain votes was also busy using the Republican Party to position itself into power. Republicans were also busy down-ballot getting control of as many states as possible which is what political parties do but in America state governments have has the added advantage of controlling voting in each state, including constituency boundaries, polling stations, ballots etc.
Republican wannabee presidential candidates got wilder and wilder into Right Wing Religion culminating with the unelectable Romney in 2012. And the Religious Right kept pushing regressive laws at the state level, restricting abortion access, insisting on inserting religion (theirs only) into schools, etc. Some of these laws were passed and some were then overturned by SCOTUS. They kept things stirred up and in front of the public.
In 2012 I said to one of my blog readers (in a private email I think) that the Republicans wanted Obama in for 8 years so they could obstruct everything he wanted to do and make America so bad people would vote for a Religious Right President in 2016 and that 2020 would likely be the last free election in America. I had some of the details wrong.
In 2013, the Robert's Court watered down the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Immediately Red States began passing voter ID laws supposedly aimed at preventing voter fraud. Voter Fraud being defined as Blacks, Latinos, Muslims, poor and students who might vote Democrat. You know, people who should never have been given the vote in the first place.
Throw in Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, Isis, Muslims, Syrian Immigrants, Fox News, Breitbart and Alex Jones and you have a rather flammable mix. The GOP got smart this time. the religious nutbars when down swinging in the primaries, leaving a man who is the antithesis of Christianity but who can stir the darkest most hateful tendencies in his followers. He will Make America Great (White) Again. And by selling HRC as the Anti-Crist, Trump attracted teh religious crowd without getting religious.
The Religious Right hide their man behind Trump as VP. Mike Pence will be Trump's HW and Cheney. In fact Trump has already said he will leave the details of being POTUS to Pence. This is a Dominionist's wet dream. Republican's control the presidency, the house, the senate and the supreme court and the Religious Right is positioned to control them.
Every regressive, oppressive law the Religious Right ever dreamed of will now be passed and every inconvenient SCOTUS decision overturned. Republican Jesus will have his theocracy. Voter suppression will reach depths not seen since Jim Crow. Republican control of the states will only increase and in 2020 and going forward Republicans will win every federal election because they control the voting.
2016 will be the last free and fair (such as it was) election in America in my lifetime and possibly in that of my children. America will resemble Russia even more than it does now.
Just call me one of Job's Comforters.
It has always seemed like the Republicans were going from disaster to disaster but with 20/20 hindsight, it was the Democrats who were barely hanging on while the Republicans set them up for complete destruction. This election was about Religion (Hillary is Satan) and Race (Trump rally chant: We hate Muslims. We hate Blacks. Time to take our country back). Nixon's Southern Strategy and Falwell's Moral Majority came to maturity and bore fruit.
Nixon was an old-time politician, followed a few years later by Reagan with HW as the power behind the throne. Clinton gave the Republicans practice in being totally uncooperative and wasting government money on politically biased investigations. Then came W with Cheney as the brains and power of the Presidency.
The Democrats' turn brought Obama to the plate. In the lead up to the 2008 election, the Republicans began serious HRC bashing with the SCOTUS Citizens United decision in 2010 opening the floodgates to corporate cash in time for the mid-term elections. The remake of the liberal Warren Court into a conservative Roberts Court was paying off.
The GOP ran McCain against Obama, a fair match until they added Sarah Palin as running mate. This introduced to the American public the idea that any idiot could seek the highest office in the land and as Obama commented you could draw a straight line from Palin to Trump.
The Religious Right, supposedly being used by Republicans to gain votes was also busy using the Republican Party to position itself into power. Republicans were also busy down-ballot getting control of as many states as possible which is what political parties do but in America state governments have has the added advantage of controlling voting in each state, including constituency boundaries, polling stations, ballots etc.
Republican wannabee presidential candidates got wilder and wilder into Right Wing Religion culminating with the unelectable Romney in 2012. And the Religious Right kept pushing regressive laws at the state level, restricting abortion access, insisting on inserting religion (theirs only) into schools, etc. Some of these laws were passed and some were then overturned by SCOTUS. They kept things stirred up and in front of the public.
In 2012 I said to one of my blog readers (in a private email I think) that the Republicans wanted Obama in for 8 years so they could obstruct everything he wanted to do and make America so bad people would vote for a Religious Right President in 2016 and that 2020 would likely be the last free election in America. I had some of the details wrong.
In 2013, the Robert's Court watered down the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Immediately Red States began passing voter ID laws supposedly aimed at preventing voter fraud. Voter Fraud being defined as Blacks, Latinos, Muslims, poor and students who might vote Democrat. You know, people who should never have been given the vote in the first place.
Throw in Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, Isis, Muslims, Syrian Immigrants, Fox News, Breitbart and Alex Jones and you have a rather flammable mix. The GOP got smart this time. the religious nutbars when down swinging in the primaries, leaving a man who is the antithesis of Christianity but who can stir the darkest most hateful tendencies in his followers. He will Make America Great (White) Again. And by selling HRC as the Anti-Crist, Trump attracted teh religious crowd without getting religious.
The Religious Right hide their man behind Trump as VP. Mike Pence will be Trump's HW and Cheney. In fact Trump has already said he will leave the details of being POTUS to Pence. This is a Dominionist's wet dream. Republican's control the presidency, the house, the senate and the supreme court and the Religious Right is positioned to control them.
Every regressive, oppressive law the Religious Right ever dreamed of will now be passed and every inconvenient SCOTUS decision overturned. Republican Jesus will have his theocracy. Voter suppression will reach depths not seen since Jim Crow. Republican control of the states will only increase and in 2020 and going forward Republicans will win every federal election because they control the voting.
2016 will be the last free and fair (such as it was) election in America in my lifetime and possibly in that of my children. America will resemble Russia even more than it does now.
Just call me one of Job's Comforters.
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| I'm so sorry, Sweetheart. Just don't watch anymore. |
This, I fear, will also effect Ukrain and many of the x-Soviet Republic states. Young people of the future will remember this as a pivotal time, as I remember the end of segregation, Kennedy assassination, the end of the Vietnam war and 9-11. I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I believe this election will reshape the United States for decades to come - a dark ages.
ReplyDeletethe Ol'Buzzard
Yes, it will. Already racist attacks are on the rise in America. Eastern Europe and the former republics of the USSR are now in fear they will be abandoned to Putin who seems to have his Yalta II for free.
ReplyDeleteWe are indeed entering a new Dark Ages. Hobbe's all against all
the right have been going after Hillary for 35 years..nothing stuck but it was enough to make everyone think she was an evil lying untrustworthy person.and they were stupid to think that the 8 years of OBama was bad for the country..fuck them..
ReplyDeleteThe Religious Right hated HRC because of her stand on Gay Rights and A Woman's Choice. They were willing to throw America under the bus to get at the vacancy on the supreme court
ReplyDeleteWell said, Pop
ReplyDeleteI've been worried about the US politics and attitudes for a long time, and now I'm hoping Trump actually builds his wall between the US and Canada. At least it might contain some of the toxicity.
ReplyDeleteForeign leaders will be terrified he will take insult and nuc them
DeleteAll I can say is that I'm glad I live on the north of the Canada/USA border. I'm scared to go to the south of it now. YoungerSon predicted the Trump win, nobody believed him, and he turned out to be right.
ReplyDeletePeople could not believe that there would be that many Americans voting to Make America White Again
DeleteI don't think the outcome is predetermined. Even with the voter suppression, it was a close election. But the next few years are going to be hard. I worry most (you know) about the unraveling of the world order of peacekeeping, however poor, and trade. If that occurs, a recovery will take decades.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are right about the future but do not forget, with Republicans in control of the supreme court you have only begun to see voter suppression laws. Jim Crow II is on its way.
DeleteTrump's impact on the International Order is quite frightening. We are headed to a new Age of Metternich
I saw where the religious right didn't vote for the man, but for the party platform. Your take on Pence may be right on, he is the scariest one.
ReplyDeleteThe voter fraud I worry about that nobody is talking about this time around is the electronic voting machines with no paper record. It's been proven multiple times how easy they are to hack. Hack one and you infect the whole precinct or district. Also it is possible to hack the state totals as was proven in 2012 when Rove was so sure Rmoney would win Ohio and was totally shocked when Obama won the state. Later Anonymous announced they had prevented a hack. Waiting to see if anyone will have anything to say about the election this time as far as the voting machines go. Bradblog spent a lot of time from 2004 on doing posts about the voting machines.
This article explains better than anything I have read why the Religious Right supported Trump. It is very disheartening reading.
ReplyDeletehttp://religiondispatches.org/trump-before-jesus-the-christian-right-v-the-liberal-state/
I saw a figure that 300,000 voters were turned away in Wisconsin whch Trump won by 50,000 votes or something like that. The Ohio electronic voting machines elected Bush in 2004 and I am sure played a major role again this time in the close swing states. American voting is merely a classier system than Putin uses.
Stuff will happen, interesting stuff.
ReplyDeleteScary stuff, too.
DeleteWe have enough malcontents in America without a Canadian living it the Ukraine expressing his "political analysis" of the situation. I am quitting your blog. I have had enough "the sky is falling" rhetoric .
ReplyDeleteThank you, sir. I am honoured. Though to be fair I didn't know you were following my blog.
Delete