Where are the calls for the GOP to “Ray Stevens” the base?
by digby
I wrote about the GOP’s xenophobia primary today for Salon. They just can’t get out of the quicksand:
One of the most enduring political establishment tropes of the last two decades is the one which says that the Democratic presidential candidate must, at some point, do what Bill Clinton did back in 1992 and “Sistah Soljah” the base. This requirement stems from the assumption, still widely held in Washington, that left of the Democratic party is wildly out of step with the country and in order to win the candidate must repudiate that part of the party lest he or she be tagged as an extremist. You’ll recall that this refers to a speech Clinton made to Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition convention in which he took the rapper known as Sistah Soljah to task saying:
If you took the words “white” and “black” and reversed them, you might think David Duke was giving that speech…. We have an obligation, all of us, to call attention to prejudice whenever we see it.
He was applauded for being brave enough to risk the opprobrium of African Americans who were seen as having a chokehold on the Party, what with all their welfare using and crime causing. Clinton’s bold repudiation of the Soljah Strawman was widely seen as a necessary corrective for the Party and was in keeping with Clinton’s New Democrat agenda. It thrilled the punditocracy and it became a matter of necessity for any serious Democratic candidate to find a way to tell off liberal voters in order to “move to the center.”
However, as the Republicans really have become trapped by their most extremist voters, there have been very few calls for them to “Sistah Soljah” any part of their own base even if it would mean expanding their ability to win national elections. Ex-Bush official Michael Gerson and Peter Wehner wrote a piece called “How to Save the Republican party” a while back in which they referenced Clinton’s tactic but they don’t explicitly point out any area in which the GOP could confront and insult a particular voting bloc to signal their “bravery” and willingness to take on the “special interests” in their own party. They write that the GOP should moderate its views on science and gay marriage but they don’t suggest that candidates give speeches denouncing creationists and religious leaders. They just say everyone should be more “inclusive,” which is awfully nice.
And certainly we have not heard anyone in the mainstream chattering classes suggesting that in order to get elected, the Republican candidates must show up at NRA conventions and religious gatherings and insult their true believers to their face. The right-wing extremist factions are still afforded tremendous respect as full-fledged members of the body politic and no Republican candidate is being asked to put them in their place so that the rest of the country will be reassured that the inmates aren’t running the asylum.
Their biggest problem is their base’s xenophobia as it’s knocking them out of contention in national elections. So I offer up the country singer Ray Stevens as someone for say, Jeb Bush to publicly scold for his song “Come to the USA”:
There’s no penalty to pay
Should you get caught illegally immigratin’
Come to the USA.
It will be your lucky day
‘Cause when you get in there’s lots of goodies waitin’
Like health care, welfare, free education,
Help with your voter registration
And drivers license and credit cards
And license plates for your old car.
Lots of jobs for you to do
And employers who’ll turn a blind eye, too.
Come to the USA!
No need to worry about the Constitution.
We’ll help you start a house of prostitution
If that’s the kind of work that you wanna do
You see, those gringo infidels are crazy.
They’ll give citizenship to your new baby.
So, you see, there’s really only one choice for you.