Who Closed the Conservative Mind?

What I thought was funny was how it avoided the two elephants in the room: racism, and outright dishonesty.

It’s amazing to me that someone could write the stuff about Southern history being “oppositional”, without admitting to the bigger issue of racism. The “conservative movement” has been absolutely happy to cozy up with outright racists whenever possible. The recent flap over the “Confederate History” celebrations is only the latest indicator, in a long history that (as the author indicates) goes back to Nixon’s attempt to co-opt Wallace voters, at least.

The second, related, strand, is the refusal of the mainstream right (if such a think even exists any more) to distance itself from recent wave of “Tea Party”/”Birther”/”Death Panels” insanity. There may be ideological reasons for conservatives to oppose health care reform (although, since the bill that passed was essentially the Republican Senate 1993 counter-proposal to Clinton’s attempt at health care, I sincerely doubt it), but the fact that not a single Republican crossed the aisle to vote for it (compared to about 1/3rd who did for Medicare under Johnson, which was a much bigger ideological issue) reeks of opportunism– confirmed by the rhetoric about “death panels”, which showed a wanton disregard for the truth.

Obama, far from being a socialist, is actually to the right of Nixon on most issues, and far to the right of Eisenhower. But you wouldn’t know that from the ridiculous denunciations coming from Fox News and its epigones.

To summarize: Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” worked– and now we’re all paying the price.

I lived for two years in the south, coming from a fairly integrated part of Canada where most of my friends were non-caucasian. So it was a real shock to see communities so divided by racism (and the racism was on both sides) When I was there, in the late 80′s, most of these folks were all Democrats but now they have tended to become Republican. But I also know there have been lots of changes the past 20 years and there isn’t nearly the degree of racism there once was.

I think it a mistake to say conservatives haven’t taken note of this. Quite a few wrote on this about the recent CPAC convention.

That said, I think the focus on racism tends to be a concerted effort by Liberal PR folks to divert attention from the substance of conservative critics. I’d be the first to admit there are racists in the Republican party. But I’d dispute the role they play. Further Democrats have tended to play the race card as a way of labeling Republicans so they can avoid engagement with the issues. I think you can really see this with the Tea Party movement.

Now I’m not a fan of the Tea Party movement. To me it represents a kind of populism at its worst where simplistic views are taken without attempting to engage with the difficult choices of how to balance the budget. Anger without much thought. That said it’s also clear that since last summer Democrats have constantly attempted at every opportunity to discount the movement by labeling it as racist when there’s just very, very, very little racism in it. Republican blogs have justifiably become upset at this. It’s become a strategy to dismiss a group by simply labeling them.

I recognize Democrats aren’t the only ones to do this. Republicans used a pretty similar tactic back in the early years of the Iraq war to discount doubters. I felt it wrong then and I feel it wrong now.

As for medical care, as you know I tend to agree with David Frum that that this was a mistake by Republicans. But simultaneously I think it a bit disingenuous to compare this to what happened under Johnson since at that time to be a Republican wasn’t necessarily to be a conservative. It really is an Apples and Oranges situation. Further even some Republicans who might be for medical insurance reform can think that doing it in the midst of a recession with growing deficits is crazy. Likewise it is very fair to say that Republicans couldn’t have modified the bill sufficiently to really avoid what they see as egregious in it. (Yes single payer was avoided, but it simply isn’t the kind of market reform the Republican plans wanted – as even David Frum noted)

As for distancing from the populist movements like the Tea Party, I think the article did address this. I think the biggest issue is that the large media voices now effectively control the Republican party by exciting the grassroots. I’ll give Obama credit that he was able to distance himself from his grassroots after winning the nomination. (Much to the disgruntlement of many netroots figures) I suspect that part of the dynamic is simply that right now there is no real Republican leader due to their being a minority party without the Presidency. If that changes then hopefully we’ll see more carefully crafted policy rather than the current wave of populism.

However my sense is that it won’t be until at least 2016 before that happens. There just aren’t remotely any good Republican leadership amongst the governors. Most of the governors you’d normally turn to haven’t exactly panned out. The one who I think would do the best job, Huntsman, was given the cold shoulder by social conservatives and is not the ambassador to China and unlikely to run this election cycle.

Clark: The one who I think would do the best job, Huntsman, was given the cold shoulder by social conservatives and is not the ambassador to China and unlikely to run this election cycle

I think Huntsman would be a mediocre president. Closing state offices on Fridays is a case in point. A policy that only someone with a slim grasp of reality could approve. Quick, name any customer service oriented business that would see a net benefit from operating only four days a week. Most businesses that pulled a stunt like that would be out of business within months.