What happens when you create a bunch of True Believer cultists?
by digby
They can’t change …
Read Ed Kilgore. He knows what he’s talking about:
In all my writings on this subject, I’ve stressed the fact that the contemporary conservative movement—and particularly its increasingly dominant “constitutional conservative” wing—is unusually resistant to changes in its ideology, policies and messaging, for the rather obvious reason that they believe in a fixed, timeless government model located somewhere in the 1920s that reflects not only the Founders’ design but a divine imperative communicated through the Declaration of Independence, natural law, and scripture. So of course they will look high and low for evidence that they don’t have to “change to win,” and even if that pursuit fails, they’ll argue for holding out for a perfect electoral storm to avoid any compromise in their “conservative principles.”
Case in point, here’s Paul Krugman:
True believers will say that this kind of agenda [“libertarian populism”] is actually great for low-income workers because it would lead to wonderful economic growth. This happens to be a view contradicted by all the evidence, but more to the point, what on earth would make anyone think that it’s a workable political strategy? Yelling even more loudly about the wonders of sound money and supply-side economics isn’t going to persuade anyone who hasn’t been persuaded already.
As a practical matter, the current GOP agenda isn’t so much about hard money or even lower top marginal rates as it is about slashing safety-net programs. There has been a highly successful attack on unemployment benefits, and the party has worked itself into a lather about food stamps too.
So, news flash: these programs don’t just benefit Those People; they’re also very important to downscale whites, the very people that will supposedly rescue the GOP. This is especially true of unemployment insurance:
Data are scrappier on food stamps, with a lot of states failing to report the race of many recipients; but if we look at, for example, Pennsylvania, which does have almost complete reporting, we find that 59 percent of food stamp recipients are non-Hispanic whites.
In short, the idea behind libertarian populism seems to be to bring back disaffected whites by preaching, even more forcefully, the virtues of the pro-wealthy policies the GOP has been following all along, and meanwhile destroying the safety net programs many of those disaffected whites depend on. Sounds like a winner.
I think it actually is a winner. If by “winning” you mean keeping their base happy. For them, as long as the wrong people (if you know what I mean) aren’t getting any government help, it’s all good. Even if they have to suffer to make sure that happens.
*I wrote my thoughts on this a few days back.