Republicans' choice: fantasy follies or reality-based relevance
The GOP's electoral future hangs on whether it prefers the 'conservative entertainment complex' to America as it finds it
Ana Marie Cox
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 November 2012 13.11 EST
Republicans' belief in the feel-good Fox News fantasies of what "real America" wanted and believed helped them lose the election. Would Romney have lost if his base didn't stubbornly insist that polls were rigged, that almost half the country was looking for a handout (and the other half was angry about it), and that government exists only to coddle or sabotage (not so much the "Nanny state" as Mommie Dearest)? The "conservative entertainment complex", as columnist David Frum put it, promulgated a view of the American electorate that wasn't just objectively false, in terms of polled support, but to which they objected. That is, they didn't just get wrong how much support Romney had; they told a story about American voters that Americans themselves didn't believe.
You can't win an election by appealing solely to a class you've arbitrarily designated as the "makers" – there are too many of us who don't believe getting back from your government is "taking". And when it comes to civil rights, you can't woo voters with a description of a future they're not part of. Ultimately, we didn't want to be the kind of country Mitt Romney and the Republican party told us we were.
The reality that Republicans even now seem to have trouble accepting is that not only do we not want to be Romney's America, we aren't and can't be: progress can't be undone, increasing diversity can't be willed into segregation. This isn't just a metaphorical point, either: between 2000 and 2010, the number of Americans who identify as multiracial grew three-and-a-half times faster than those identifying as being of a single race. Seventy-seven percent of Americans say they have a friend , co-worker or relative who's gay, up from 42% since 1992. Women now attend college at rates higher than the male population and are the primary breadwinners for 60% of all families. Put that in a binder and smoke it.
(More here.)
Ana Marie Cox
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 November 2012 13.11 EST
Republicans' belief in the feel-good Fox News fantasies of what "real America" wanted and believed helped them lose the election. Would Romney have lost if his base didn't stubbornly insist that polls were rigged, that almost half the country was looking for a handout (and the other half was angry about it), and that government exists only to coddle or sabotage (not so much the "Nanny state" as Mommie Dearest)? The "conservative entertainment complex", as columnist David Frum put it, promulgated a view of the American electorate that wasn't just objectively false, in terms of polled support, but to which they objected. That is, they didn't just get wrong how much support Romney had; they told a story about American voters that Americans themselves didn't believe.
You can't win an election by appealing solely to a class you've arbitrarily designated as the "makers" – there are too many of us who don't believe getting back from your government is "taking". And when it comes to civil rights, you can't woo voters with a description of a future they're not part of. Ultimately, we didn't want to be the kind of country Mitt Romney and the Republican party told us we were.
The reality that Republicans even now seem to have trouble accepting is that not only do we not want to be Romney's America, we aren't and can't be: progress can't be undone, increasing diversity can't be willed into segregation. This isn't just a metaphorical point, either: between 2000 and 2010, the number of Americans who identify as multiracial grew three-and-a-half times faster than those identifying as being of a single race. Seventy-seven percent of Americans say they have a friend , co-worker or relative who's gay, up from 42% since 1992. Women now attend college at rates higher than the male population and are the primary breadwinners for 60% of all families. Put that in a binder and smoke it.
(More here.)
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