02-06-2019, 01:04 PM
Realignments seem to happen under the cover of several crushing political losses for one of the parties. It is abundantly clear that the Republican Party of the Gilded Age and its New Era (1920s) echo was not going to win with the same agenda and constituencies good for huge wins in those times. Republicans would have to wait until the formation of Suburbia and the anti-Communist hysteria of the 1950s would create a climate of conformity necessary for a new conservatism. This was not the conservatism of Gilded Age monopolists
The Nixon landslide of 1972 was superficial, but it showed what was possible if everything went right for Republicans. Much did go right for Republicans from 1980 on. Generational change took the New Deal Democrats out of political relevancy as they aged and died off in the 1980s and 1990s. White members of the GI Generation could still vote Democratic, which might explain such politicians as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and Blanche Lincoln in the South. But as they disappeared, the more self-righteous Religious Right became a big part of the electorate, and they could accept a reactionary world-view in which no human suffering could ever be excessive in the service of plutocracy, cheerful and selfless service to its privileged classes of heirs and executives would lead people to Salvation. (That world-view is not exclusively Southern, as is shown in some northern Republicans who believe much the same and are the majority in the Senate). Prosperity was possible, but it was contingent upon human suffering in low wages, monopolized markets, and heavy personal debt for the common man. Donald Trump exemplifies this to the extreme. He may be a vile man, but he appeals to the self-righteous Religious Right.
Only smashing political defeats of the current Republican coalition will force a realignment of the Parties. America hasn't had a Presidential election in which the winner got 400 or more electoral votes. Republicans could wait out Bill Clinton and Barack Obama as Republicans could not wait out the FDR era and Democrats could not simply wait out Reagan and expect to win again.
The Nixon landslide of 1972 was superficial, but it showed what was possible if everything went right for Republicans. Much did go right for Republicans from 1980 on. Generational change took the New Deal Democrats out of political relevancy as they aged and died off in the 1980s and 1990s. White members of the GI Generation could still vote Democratic, which might explain such politicians as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and Blanche Lincoln in the South. But as they disappeared, the more self-righteous Religious Right became a big part of the electorate, and they could accept a reactionary world-view in which no human suffering could ever be excessive in the service of plutocracy, cheerful and selfless service to its privileged classes of heirs and executives would lead people to Salvation. (That world-view is not exclusively Southern, as is shown in some northern Republicans who believe much the same and are the majority in the Senate). Prosperity was possible, but it was contingent upon human suffering in low wages, monopolized markets, and heavy personal debt for the common man. Donald Trump exemplifies this to the extreme. He may be a vile man, but he appeals to the self-righteous Religious Right.
Only smashing political defeats of the current Republican coalition will force a realignment of the Parties. America hasn't had a Presidential election in which the winner got 400 or more electoral votes. Republicans could wait out Bill Clinton and Barack Obama as Republicans could not wait out the FDR era and Democrats could not simply wait out Reagan and expect to win again.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.