The GOP’s well-packaged poison

[Cyrano]

Last edited Mon Dec 30, 2013, 11:59 AM - Edit history (1)

Today’s Republican/Teabag Party has absolutely nothing to appeal to people’s better instincts. So to gain and keep power, they wrap up cruelty, hatred and bigotry, put a big bow on it, write Jesus on the package, and peddle it through their vast echo chamber.

Take the phrase “Traditional Values.” Sounds warm and cozy, doesn’t it? But “Traditional Values” doesn’t tolerate LGBTs, nor does it tolerate the “little lady” as an equal to men, those “too lazy to find a job,” “voter fraud,” illegal (brown) immigrants, and so, so much more.

Ever since Ronald Reagan spun the lie about the “Welfare Queen driving a Cadillac,” the Republicans have been punching the hot buttons of the ignorant, and of far too many people who should know better.

I guess the reality is that there will always be those whose emotions can be manipulated while their brains idle in neutral. It really sucks, but selling well-packaged crap is how the GOP continues to exist in their current form.

[Bandit]

1. You found the DUHHH!!! factor

[Gothmog]

2. Traditional Values is one of the sets of code words used to keep the GOP as the party of whites only

Here is a good article on the GOP's use of racial code words http://www.salon.com/2013/12/22/how_the_gop_became_the_white_mans_party/

Exploiting the growing panic that equated social protest with social chaos, one of Nixon’s campaign commercials showed flashing images of demonstrations, riots, police, and violence, over which a deep voice intoned: “Let us recognize that the first right of every American is to be free from domestic violence. So I pledge to you, we shall have order in the United States.” A caption stated boldly: “This time. . . . vote like your whole world depended on it … NIXON.”

Nixon had mastered Wallace’s dark art. Forced bussing, law and order, and security from unrest as the essential civil right of the majority—all of these were coded phrases that allowed Nixon to appeal to racial fears without overtly mentioning race at all. Yet race remained the indisputable, intentional subtext of the appeal. As Nixon exulted after watching one of his own commercials: “Yep, this hits it right on the nose . . . it’s all about law and order and the damn Negro-Puerto Rican groups out there.”

The GOP is now using the same tactics as to the LGBT community. The GOP knows that these tactics work and so will continue to use variations of these tactics to try to stay in power.