Life in the alternate United States of America
by digby
Democracy Corps has done a fascinating study of the right wing that’s really worth reading if you want to understand exactly why we are in this ridiculous place. This tells the tale in shorthand, but you really should read the whole thing.
While many voters, even some Democrats, question whether Obama is succeeding and getting his agenda done, Republicans think he has won. The country may think gridlock has won, particularly during a Republican-led government shut down, but Republicans see a president who has fooled and manipulated the public, lied, and gotten his secret socialist-Marxist agenda done. Republicans and their kind of Americans are losing.
[They believe] that big government is meant to create rights and dependency and electoral support from mostly minorities who will reward the Democratic Party with their votes. The Democratic Party exists to create programs and dependency – the food stamp hammock, entitlements, the 47 percent. And on the horizon—comprehensive immigration reform and Obamacare. Citizenship for 12 million illegals and tens of million getting free health care is the end of the road.
These participants are very conscious of being white and valuing communities that are more likeminded; they freely describe these programs as meant to benefit minorities. This is about a Democratic Party expanding dependency among African Americans and Latinos, with electoral intent. That is why Obama and the Democrats are prevailing nationally and why the future of the Republic is so at risk.
If you have some time today, listen to this radio interview by Joshua Holland with pollster Erica Seifert, who conducted some of these focus groups.
I wish I knew the answer to this alternate universe problem but I honestly don’t have one. It seems to me that this is the natural result of 30 years of propaganda perpetuated by a bunch of professional movement shysters and a huge Republicans infotainment infrastructure that has created a very profitable industry around stoking this paranoia. It’s so thoroughly permeated this corner of the culture that I’m not sure what it will take to back it out.
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