Andrew Sullivan: Why They’ll Die On This Hill

[babylonsister]

http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/10/04/why-theyll-die-on-this-hill/


Why They’ll Die On This Hill
Oct 4 2013 @ 12:11pm


The Democratic group headed up by Stan Greenberg and James Carville has just put out a report on their recent focus group discussions with Republican voters. It’s a sobering read (pdf) – and definitely helps explain the primal scream now threatening to take down the entire American system of elective government.

Here, for starters, is the word cloud for what these voters say when talking in like-minded focus groups about president Obama:



snip//

The bewildering economic and social and demographic changes have created a cultural and existential panic among those most heavily concentrated in those districts whose members are threatening to tear down the global economy as revenge for losing two presidential elections in a row. They feel they have already lost and have nothing to gain from any constructive engagement with a president they regard as pretty close to the anti-Christ of parasitic minorities. They feel isolated in a more multi-cultural country. They feel spied upon and condescended to. They have shut out any news sources apart from Fox. It does not occur to them, for example, that Obamacare might actually help them. And you get no actual specifics on policies they like or dislike. It is all abstractions based on impressions.

More to the point, the bulk of these Republicans no longer believe in the Republican party. They identify more strongly with the Tea Party or Evangelical groups or Fox News than the GOP. On social issues, the defining issue is homosexuality – not abortion. That intransigence will alienate them them even further from the future mainstream. Their next big issue: denying climate change. Right now, I see no way to integrate these groups and people into the broader body politic or conversation. Their alienation is so deep it is close to unbridgeable. And further defeats will make their isolation worse, not better, their anger more, not less, intense.

This is the deeper crisis we face – and without strong economic growth, it is hard to see how it can be ameliorated in the near future. Perhaps if moderate Republicans – a mere quarter of the whole – jumped ship to the Democrats, then the electoral losses would be so great as to demand some kind of reform. But the center is not holding. And I fear it will get even worse than this until it gets better.

Except it’s hard to imagine political dysfunction getting worse than risking the first ever default by the Treasury of the United States because a key minority feels “disrespected.”

[dkf]

1. Good grief...I can't believe "dumbass" made the list. Seriously?

[leftyohiolib]

2. just more projection

[Stallion]

3. WoW!

surprised devil wasn't more prominent and anti-Christ wasn't listed

[reflection]

4. "kniving?"

what is that?

[grantcart]

5. conniving lol their spelling is so bad its hard to figure out.

[anneboleyn]

9. MTE!! "Kniving!" That is just SAD. Says it all, really!

[dickthegrouch]

6. How could they possible deserve respect?

This is how they feel about the President????
Completely disconnected from reality. They all deserve contempt citations.

I often think out of the box to try to show idiots how they are perceived. This time I think we should hold hearings in front of Congress to show the lies these people tell, then cite them (and jail them) for lying to congress. With any luck they won't be able to vote from jail, either.

[Spirochete]

7. So, where's "nigger"

It should be up there in great big fucking letters.

[LordGlenconner]

8. Exactly

With that ilk that's the driving factor in most cases, not that any of them would ever admit it.

[Dawson Leery]

10. The Evangelical movement has done irreversible harm to the world.

[Bosso 63]

11. Yeah, they don't like the President,

but the more important part of the article is at the end.
The tea party types are delusional, that's no secret, but don't get distracted by the delusion. The important part for me is this line.

"Their alienation is so deep it is close to unbridgeable. And further defeats will make their isolation worse, not better, their anger more, not less, intense."

That kind of distorted thinking can make people commit dangerous acts.
"Dying On This Hill" may be more than a metaphor.

[BellaKos]

12. For gawd's sake!

I have been saying for YEARS that the right-wing media is dangerous to democracy. And now we're seeing the results.

These fanatics aren't stupid or delusional; they're BRAINWASHED.
The NUTTY IDEA comes first from right-wing talk radio. Then, it's picked up by various websites. And like clockwork, Fox Noise repeats the lie. Perhaps not directly, but their pundits certainly insinuate that the NUTTY IDEA is credible.
And voila! All of a sudden, Obama is a Nazi-communist from Kenya and Obamacare will kill you!

There is no reasoning that will change their minds. They have their own numbers and facts. I mean, who could forget their certainty that Romney would win in 2012?

What I can foresee is a day when Alex Jones or Glen Beck or Rush Limbaugh *insinuate* that in order to protect the Constitution and "our" way of life, a "patriot" must take action. Next sentence: "And you know, my fellow Americans, what I mean!"
Next thing you know, "lib'rils," or those perceived as "enemies" will be shot.

Mark my words. And don't be so naive. This kind of brainwashing which has resulted in the fiasco that we have in Washington DC right now is DANGEROUS.
Don't tolerate it!