The GOP's Death Wish: Why Republicans Can't Stop Pissing Off Hispanics, Women, and Young People

[MrScorpio]

ROBERT B. REICH


What are the three demographic groups whose electoral impact is growing fastest? Hispanics, women, and young people. Who are Republicans pissing off the most? Latinos, women, and young people.

It’s almost as if the GOP can’t help itself.

Start with Hispanic voters, whose electoral heft keeps growing as they comprise an ever-larger portion of the electorate. Hispanics now favor President Obama over Romney by more than two to one, according to a recent Pew poll.

The movement of Hispanics into the Democratic camp has been going on for decades. What are Republicans doing to woo them back? Replicating California Republican Governor Pete Wilson’s disastrous support almost twenty years ago for Proposition 187 – which would have screened out undocumented immigrants from public schools, health care, and other social services, and required law-enforcement officials to report any “suspected” illegals. (Wilson, you may remember, lost that year’s election, and California’s Republican Party has never recovered.)

The Arizona law now before the Supreme Court – sponsored by Republicans in the state and copied by Republican legislators and governors in several others – would authorize police to stop anyone looking Hispanic and demand proof of citizenship. It’s nativism disguised as law enforcement.

http://robertreich.org/post/21873448108

[TheMastersNemesis]

1. I Don't Think The GOP Cares

I really do not think the GOP cares who they piss off. As far as they are concerned the tsunami of money and election fixing will win them the day. That is the only conclusion that I can come up with since I do not think they are that crazy. They are just telling America that they are going to seize election process and stuff their agenda up our keesters. That is how they think.
'
You are dealing with a radicalized fanatical party crazed by the same religious fervor the Taliban and Wahabis exhibit. They are on a Christian crusade to rid the country of all secularism and progressivism. Just listen to their rhetoric and watch their actions.

It is insanity to think that you can negotiate or debate this crowd now. I have talked to schizophrenics who make more sense.

[AsahinaKimi]

2. +100

agree..

[trueblue2007]

13. YOU ARE RIGHT... GOP HATES US

[Zalatix]

3. They don't stop pissing off these groups because they keep winning anyway.

See: 2010.

[HereSince1628]

4. A hypothesis: Demographic patterns of donations to republicans show 3 groups under-represented

Hispanics, women and young people.

I don't even know where to start looking for data, but based on the GOP attraction to money rather than votes, I think it would be worth testing.

[Mopar151]

5. These are the 3 groups the DammFoolGOP'er's are most scared of.

It is more important to many in the GOP that the DammFool segment of their base be pandered to, than to appeal to the America we are becoming. It's hard on "the base" to discover, or be shown, that they have been full of shit for most of their lives. It's worse yet to let out the "secrets" of how they came to be so full of shit.

[Recursion]

6. Learn the difference between "constitute" and "comprise", Reich

Lions, tigers, and bears constitute a zoo.

A zoo comprises lions, tigers, and bears.

This moment of grammar naziism was brought to you by Pell grants...

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. Oh, my.

[Speck Tater]

7. I suspect there's a good reason for it.

Rich, white, privileged conservatives hang out with other of their kind, and so that's all they ever really see of the world. We "others", who are not part of their "club", seem like an abstraction. We are not actually real to them. We are more like characters in a novel or extras in a movie. And they maintain this attitude because they never interact with us, never experience our world, never share any of our typical experiences.

So don't ever expect them to take us seriously. We're simply not real to them.

[MrScorpio]

8. I think you're right

They all live, work and play together. They intermingle and intermarry.

Except for being their step stools, what other use do they have for us?

[Populist_Prole]

9. Absolutely. You talk to them and see that

They just don't care about how their ideology fits in to the world outside their bubble....because there is no world outside their bubble. The hard right conservatives I deal with in my life are literally living in a bubble of their own formation. They unabashedly admit they socialize only with their own kind and listen/watch/read what reinforces their opinion. The other thing is that they don't see it as a bubble: They honestly and passionately believe, with every last fiber of their body, that the vast majority of the population in this country agrees with them. If you don't, or suggest otherwise, they don't just say something like "well you're you and I'm me" and leave it at that, but they HATE you...and with a passion you have to be there to really get the full sense of.

Now I've known these people for a long time, and I can see the change since President Obama won the election: Those on the center right became full-on right wingers; those already on the right went fucking berserk.

[MrScorpio]

12. I know that there are people out there like that, I'm just grateful that I don't know any personally

So I find myself at times on places like Yahoo, where they're all over the fucking place.

Quite frankly, I entertain myself by toying with these assholes and their horribly screwed delusions. They are so very easy to bait. If they were fish, I'd be a grand master fisherman by now.

The sheer amount of racism, misogyny, homophobia, paranoia, anger, blood lust and stupidity in these people is staggering to behold. Especially that stupidity part. I wonder how it's possible that any of these brain donors can even type words on a keyboard, much less possess a minimum amount of neurons to run their autonomic nervous systems… But, to my shock and amazement, they do.

But I have a theory, I truly don't think that there are actually as many of these idiots out in the world than we think there are. I believe that what's happening is that those of them who are out there are actually doing the work of more people because they're viscerally engaged in a campaign of maintaining their own bubbles from a real world that's alien to them.

If the real world wasn't as imposing on them as much as it is, they wouldn't work so hard at rejecting it. Hate, too, is a great motivator for them, even though I wonder how in the hell can they sleep at night with themselves… But there it is.

I think that the best thing to do is just to give them a bigger dose of reality. Perhaps that could break the chains of ignorance and hatred.

I think that four more years of Obama just might seal the deal.

[eridani]

14. A grand master fisherman and not a

-- Master Baiter?

[MrScorpio]

15. You know me all too well. nt

[Populist_Prole]

16. Yeah I've been wondering what a good slam of reality would do to them as well

Though they really are truly delusional as you so astutely noticed, I wonder how they will react when it's pointed out to them how small of a loud minority they are when their "side" loses this upcoming election.

Will they take it with a resigned sigh that they really don't have much influence after all that their world is collapsing? ( perhaps followed by the eventual realization that they've been hating everyone outside their bubble for imaginary reasons )

Will they yell louder and act in a volatile manner?

Another point you made was wonderment at how people so delusional and bereft of sense can get through daily life: Well I can say that many don't. Sure they eat and breathe, and if they have a spouse/family they can get through their daily housing/material needs just via inertia of the system, but they don't truly live. I've seen ( and continue to see ) people that filter every single thing they think about and do, through there politics. For example: They like this or that product or place ( or food, movie etc ) on an intellectual level, but they complain about it because they might have a connection to anything to the left, even if it is imaginary. I can't imagine how stressful that must be to always hate.

Here's a good one: A certain family member and I visited a national park of immense beauty and awe. I was like a one eyed cat in a seafood store at the scenery. Many outdoors types young and older were hiking about the area and many trails. He seemed quite tepid as we walked about, and then finally snarled to me: "Ehhhhh, too many people here that look like libruls that vote for Obama". I was stunned that after such a long drive to a much anticipated visit that such a petty observation was his sum total of his visit. He remained glum and uninterested the rest of the time there. Man, that kind of visceral dislike has to eat a hole in one's guts.

[0rganism]

11. They're aware of it too, thus their voter suppression laws

They know damn well who they've alienated, and it's absolutely essential that "those people" be kept away from the polls so their looting of the treasury can continue unabated.