Glad I'm Not A GOPer

Not that I ever would be and I do recognize that I'd have to be a serious one and that would involve being extinct, BUT..., I do have an interest in politics. Despite some horseshit opinions, the 2010 election results were not about the Left staying home and were about the "middle" swapping Parties. As a GOPer that re-alignment after the BushCo disaster (he who is never named) would have been extremely heartening - especially in the face of the '08 election.

If I'd been a GOPer I'd have seen that as my moment to feed that economic dis-satisfaction that got us into a position of power. I would have gone out of my way by considerable distance to work on economic issues and paint Democratic resistance as ideological sabotage. Think tanks would've been churning out policy proposals and the media could have played stenographer to my economic arguments. Not how that was done.

In a position where unemployment officially stands at 8.3% and really stands a hell of a lot higher it would have been nearly impossible to knock me off that message. The sitting President has problems, real ones and some that can be massaged into something. Discontent with ACA is real, though its crummy polling happens from both sides, but turning ACA into a position to slam women from isn't where I'd go. Talking about small government works with quite a few people - right up until they see themselves getting caught in that drain, so you re-assure them. The number of illegal immigrants in this country strikes a nerve, but stupidity on the issue alienates Hispanics who have a constituency that would align, broadly speaking, with GOPer stances. I would want that part of the group to be my friends, not horrified because they know Jan Brewer junk will mean they'll get pulled over and harassed.

I would pay attention to national demographics and especially the part that says my cadre is dying off and not being replaced. I'm real sure I'd pay attention to the largest voting bloc in the US, women, and make sure I'm not actively trying to piss them off. I'd make sure that Party leaders paid attention to State legislative actions and pushed really hard to keep them from being stupid and offensive.

If I wrote about GOP politics from a real platform as a GOPer I sure wouldn't have waited 40 years to complain about the train going off the track. I'd have spent that time dissuading stupidity and warning about the lunatic fringe rather than encouraging it. You can't play at being David Brooks or George Will for decades and then do a big turnabout and suddenly call the situation stupid. People who read you will just ask,"WTF?"

Since I'm well left of Democratic policies my prescriptions wouldn't work, but one thing is sure - I would not be going out of my way to alienate large voting blocs. A stupid person might think a Blount Amendment is a clever way to gut "Obamacare," but because it is a gutting mechanism it is open to mockery. Instead of being half-clever they could have put themselves firmly in the corner of the godbotherers by sticking to religious institutions without facing absolute mockery. Culture is a tricky thing, the backlash from the 60s continues this half century later - just witness the "Hippies" term still in currency. But culture does shift, people lose homophobia, people of another color become normative, people get tired of war and those trends aren't stopped by standing athwart the ideological fence and screaming, "STOP!!@*^*^%!!" You find a way to deal with it and still appeal to your... damn... whatever they are and still include the non-crazed. For over half a century nobody on that side seemed to mind the whispers of "nigger" or "wet-back" or "fag" since they were short-term winners - there is a cost to be paid.

I'm also real glad I don't have to stand there with my furry face hanging out and tell my wife and 'theoretical' daughter that they're "sluts." I like my skin where it is.