South Carolina’s Democratic and Republican Primaries Are Taking Place in Parallel Universes

[pampango]

And race, as always, is the dividing line.

Yet in the cracked mirror of race, it is whites in South Carolina who say they are oppressed—beaten down by political correctness and the heavy hand of Washington. Only in a state where everyday reality remains separate and unequal would the refusal to expand Medicaid make political—if not economic or moral—sense. While the days of “colored” and “white” drinking fountains may be long gone, political party has become such a reliable proxy for race here that it may come as a shock to learn that the state’s Republican junior senator, Tim Scott, is black. In 2013, Scott came to Myrtle Beach and told the Tea Partiers, “I know you’re not racist…. It’s the other side that plays favorites.”

This year, there are actually two African Americans on the program at the Tea Party convention here: David Webb, the conservative talk-radio host, and Ben Carson. The audience is as white as this year’s Oscar nominees. Politically, though, this turns out to be a surprisingly diverse group. The official program promises a beguiling panoply of swivel-eyed paranoia: “Tom DeWeese has built a career on conspiratorial warnings about Agenda 21…. Where others see sensible environmental guidelines, DeWeese finds sinister land-grabbing socialist UN initiatives.”

Ted Cruz is Donald Trump without the charm. He opens with a joke: “The Democratic field consists of a wild-eyed socialist—and Bernie Sanders.” But soon he gets down to business: “How do we not get burned?” This is a movement crowd, and as Cruz repeatedly reminds them, he’s been with them from the beginning, unlike a certain New York City billionaire. “We’re Tea Party because we’re fed up with bailing out Wall Street and ignoring Main Street. No bailouts for any banks, period.”

Shifting his fire to Marco Rubio, Cruz declares: “Anyone who was AWOL on the battle of the Gang of Eight has no standing to say they will enforce the law.” (Rubio was one of eight senators—four from the GOP— involved in drafting a comprehensive immigration-reform bill in 2013, which Cruz opposed.) The crowd cheers, and when he asks, “Are you fed up with Republicans nominating liberals for the Supreme Court?,” they roar back in agreement.

http://www.thenation.com/article/south-carolinas-democratic-and-republican-primaries-are-taking-place-in-parallel-universes/

At times, it is still amazing to me how disconnected from reality the republican base actually is.