tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5261748503426298041.post820629277481582146..comments2023-10-21T13:04:34.038-07:00Comments on Our Place in the World: A Journal of Ecosocialism: 3319. On Trump's Political Base: Audacity of HateKamran Nayerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13737979861971221811noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5261748503426298041.post-24403941202271183412020-03-27T22:16:47.596-07:002020-03-27T22:16:47.596-07:00At the beginning of this piece, the author does a ...At the beginning of this piece, the author does a pretty good job of explaining how the nasty politics that Trump exemplifies was entirely the invention of a succession of Republican candidates and campaign operatives. The piece is a bit ahistorical on this point. Nixon's embrace of the "southern strategy," after he witnessed how successful George Wallace was in attracting lower-class white voters even in the North, was really the beginning of this descent. Reagan went to Neshoba Mississippi to give his first speech after his nomination in 1980, on "states rights," only miles from one of the most infamous murders of the civll rights error, Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman. Bush ! had the Willie Horton ad. <br /><br />My concern here is that the author lets the Republican role in creating this approach to politics slip away as the article progresses. Every time anyone talks about the situation in terms of "polarization," the Republicans get off the hook as the authors of this hateful strategy, since polarization implies that there are 2 "sides" When in fact, history shows that there are really only been 1 "side," the Republican side, with the Democrats playing the hapless dupes who have not been able to figure out how to seize the high moral ground from which to attack the Republicans immoral approach to politics. <br />Richard Bellnoreply@blogger.com