Lessons from the DNC: Ronald Reagan, the Southern Strategy, and "abnormal politics"

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/07/30/lessons-from-the-dnc-ronald-r.html

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…and forced people with serious yet treatable mental illness out of the proverbial tent and into the wilderness rather than overhaul the horrendous U.S. mental health care ‘system’, because small government. And all but told thousands of HIV-infected Americans to literally drop dead. Yeah. Fuck that guy.

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Reagan worship by the TEAGOP will never see its end, likely never ever.

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There’s a reason why I sarcastically joke that Christianity, especially American Christianity, isn’t actually monotheism.

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I believe you mean ‘moneytheistic’, which they are. A common mistake.

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Also, the high treason of Iran/Contra. . .

(P.S. “Robin” not “Rubin.”)

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Missing is that “normal” in this case, is still an imperialist, corporatist, police state.

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And we shouldn’t forget Ronald’s version of the Southern Strategy, which included standing in a spot notorious for a history of lynching and giving a coded speech about dismantling civil rights acts…
Christ, what an asshole.

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Guess where Trump Jr. was last Wednesday?

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This is assuming Scalzi’s assumptions are accurate, but I don’t think we can really know what the Democrats are going to do when they win. I’ve seen many posters here assume that Clinton is saying “Fuck you, you know you have to vote for me anyway” to the left… But that applies to everyone who doesn’t want to see Trump in power. The Democrats would be able to claim a mandate based on what they ran on, or based on who voted for them. I also wonder how that would apply to corporate donors… If citizens only have one choice anyway, what reason do the Democrats have to give preference to corporate interests? A cynical politician wants the office and the power that goes with it; the means is less important. (And before anyone can do it, I’ll critique myself; that’ll just shift more money into primaries)

I’m not going to pursue this argument, because I want to get back to programming, but the argument could be made that it’s important that the left does vote for Clinton so the Democrats are encouraged to trend left instead of right (The counterargument is that until the Democrats demonstrate with action they want those votes, they don’t deserve them). And really, it all depends on how the downballot races go; if voters separate Trump from the downballot and leave the GOP in control of Congress (much less local and state), it’s business as usual.

Incidentally, I excuse the Democrats invoking Reagan; they’re trying to manipulate conservatives by invoking the mythical Reagan of their faith, not the real one. Mythical Reagan reminds me of how when people invoke the Abrahamic god they’re usually not invoking the raging asshole of the Old Testament (though sometimes they are, and a lot more often than people invoke historical Reagan)

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This election cycle, you can choose who you would prefer to be running your imperialist, corporatist police state possessed of the largest military in the world and tens of thousands of nuclear weapons. Please vote for one of the following:

  • A bought and paid for tool of the oligarchy who thinks puppies and kittens make good pets.
  • An egotistical megalomaniacal sociopathic bully who thinks puppies and kittens should be processed into soylent meals for the foreign slaves who will be forced to build a thousand foot high statue of himself on the national mall before they are deported.
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And Reagan was STILL infinitely more qualified than Trump. “Governor of California” beats the heck out of “no record of public service whatsoever.”

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I agree that the republican party is broken and should be scrapped. I disagree with the implicit assertion that the democratic party is just fine. America would be a better nation if it was run by the Greens and the Libertarians instead of the Democrats and Republicans.

Anyone who thinks only one party is broken is partisan and blind to the flaws on their own side.

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ITFY (Improved That For You). Would make for one helluva coalition, too, if we had a parliamentary system.

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She may be bought and paid for. But she has promised to dismantle Citizens United, even if it takes a Constitutional amendment to do it, making it possible that in the future we have presidential candidates who aren’t either members of the oligarchy or bought and paid for by the oligarchy.

I’d vote for her just for that promise alone.

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He heard someone compared him to Reagan and he’s trying hard to recreate his campaign, I guess…

It’s also more qualified than “had no fucking clue how government works on any level.” It’s amusing to see that Trump is accidentally creating controversy when he gets asked a question, like whether he would recognize Crimea as Russian, and his response is “Yes. We’ll look into that” because he has no fucking clue what they’re talking about and doesn’t know how to answer. He did that throughout his campaign but afterwards would pretend he couldn’t hear the question - now he’s realized that hasn’t hurt him, so he doesn’t even bother to pretend.

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Aww. You believe Clinton’s campaign promises. How cute. I bet you think she really is going to oppose the TPP, too.

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I just want to emphasize this line from Scalzi:

The GOP isn’t coloring inside the lines; they’re not even coloring inside the book or using crayons. What they’re doing is splashing pig’s blood on a wall and scrawling ALL HAIL THE ANGRY CHEETO with the gore.

That is a nice line.

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It’s excellent, but somehow it left me wanting a cheeto residue reference too, can’t figure out how to slip it in though.

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“In four years, though, they’ll realize their hands are still stained orange, because, before opening Pandora’s bag, they really should have taken into account the fact that Cheeto stains don’t wash off easily.”

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