It’s never good to characterize entire groups of people on the basis of prejudice. When we make sweeping generalizations, they are generally based on foundations of racism, sexism, antisemitism, and every form of discriminatory ideology. Offensive stereotypes appear often in crudely written op-eds where selected evidence about individuals is applied to whole categories of people. As LGBTQI+ individuals and allies and many other minorities or oppressed groups, we have all faced generalizations and prejudices. I try never to generalize, and I always try to see people as individuals not as part of a group. However, I’m guessing that like me many of you were raised with generalizations about groups of people. I was surrounded mostly by Republicans when I was growing up, and as minority groups gain increasingly more equal rights (though many of us still have a long way to go to be fully equal), I have seen Republicans begin to generalize more and more and in increasingly nasty ways. While I have worked hard to avoid the easy tendency to overgeneralize, not everyone has. This question persists in my mind: are today’s Republicans nasty? Have they increasingly gotten worse? Have they become the inheritors of prejudice and hate from the Southern Democrats of the 1950s-1970s?
Certainly, there are nasty Republicans, as there are nasty people of every political persuasion. Perhaps nasty Republicans just make for easy pickings. A prime example of this is the collective televised behavior of Republican Senators and Representatives during the impeachment hearings where argument and nastiness were blended into a toxic attitude designed to distract attention from what Trump had done. They seemed so afraid of Trump turning against them, that they berated Democrats and any accusers of Trump’s wrongdoings. The behavior of Republicans during the impeachment was one of the most shameful circus acts in American politics.
What provokes my bigger question is the possibility that nastiness has become the essence of Republicanism. This process did not begin with Trump. It’s been brewing for decades. Rush Limbaugh has personified the meanness of conservatism since 1988 calling feminists whores and Nazis, stereotyping gays, and repeating racist comments. His success spawned an industry of right-wing talk radio hosts copying his nastiness, and sometimes being rewarded with political office. Now, there is at least one television network dedicated to this type of behavior: Fox News. It doesn’t seem to matter what lies or half-truths they relate to their audience as long as it appeases their base.
Alex Jones began as a talk radio personality creating Info Wars in 1999. His utter disregard for people in the deepest grief has landed him in court, sued by the families of young victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. But before that, Jones’ willful nastiness earned him Trump White House press credentials. When Trump gave Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom during his State of the Union address in February, he placed public nastiness in front of his Party for their instruction.
Trump has changed the rules of public political behavior. When he was still a candidate vying for the Republican nomination, and viciously attacking Hillary Clinton in ways unprecedented for a presidential campaign, Limbaugh said, “Trump can say this stuff as an outsider. He can say this stuff as a nonmember of the elite or the establishment.” That distinction is now gone. The Republican establishment, headed by Trump, says things like that every day. Previously, most politicians tried to at least be somewhat civil, but since the Bill Clinton era, political discourse has gone downhill, and it’s trying it’s best to reach the bottom with the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans. And it’s filtering down to state and local politicians, too. I was horrified when Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick suggested back in March that fellow seniors should risk their health for the sake of the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Talk radio hosts helped eliminate moderation from Republican politics. According to Brian Anderson, author of Talk Radio’s America, “Any Republican who sought out compromise or who rejected political warfare found him or herself a target of conservative media.” These radio talk show hosts turned politics into a blood sport. Now many elected Republicans sound like radio commentators instead of statesmen.
How nasty can a Republican candidate be and still win the party’s official approval? Roy Moore ran for the Senate in 2017 with full approval of the Republican National Committee, despite having publicly disparaged Islam and homosexuality, being removed from the Alabama Supreme Court (not once, but twice) for refusing to comply with federal court rulings, and having said that America was great during slavery because people “cared for one another.” He only lost RNC support when it turned out he was a child molester, yet Trump still endorsed him and the RNC reversed itself and got behind him again. Thankfully, Democrat Doug Jones won that election. Whether he will win reelection in 2020 is doubtful; he won that special election by the slimmest of margins. My mother refers to him as “that idiot Doug Jones,” though she knows absolutely nothing about the man. I know he’s a better father than she is a mother, because he accepted his gay son something she never will do. I will always be disgusted with my parents for voting for a child molester who fought all his life to take away people’s freedoms over a good and decent man who spent his life as a champion for justice.
In a side note: I was at a restaurant with my mother one night. We were about to go see a musical at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. My sister won’t go to things like this so my mother plans them when I am home. She doesn’t like having a gay son, but ironically, she prefers my fashion advice, my cultured background, and many other things which are stereotypically gay about me. Go figure. Anyway, we were at this restaurant, one of my favorites in Montgomery (Charles Anthony's Restaurant At The Pub), when Roy Moore walked in with his wife who he met when she was underage, and his drug addled son who has been in and out of jail most of his adult life. (He’s even been barred from entering one Alabama town.). I was utterly disgusted. I literally got sick to my stomach at the sight of such a vile person. It ruined my otherwise pleasant night.
I think it’s also reasonable to argue that common Republican political maneuvers are nasty. Voter suppression, gerrymandering, and taking away powers from newly-elected Democratic governors are dirty political tools that have become the hallmark of 21st century Republicanism. Not to say Democrats haven’t tried similar tactics in the past, it’s that those tactics do seem in the past for the Democratic Party. Whereas, the official policies of Republicans in Washington remain beastly: caging immigrant children and the treatment of Puerto Ricans after Hurricane Maria.
What about your neighbor who votes Republican, but seems like a nice guy? Is he responsible for the nastiness of other Republicans? I believe supporting a politician, approving publicly of a politician, means accepting responsibility for that politician’s actions. There has been a saying going around that has a lot of truth to it: “Not all Trump supporters are racist, but all of them decided that racism isn’t a deal breaker.”
With an approval rating of 90 percent of Republican voters, Trump lacks any need (other than basic human decency) to restrain himself from his basest impulses. In the month of May, he topped himself. He retweeted a video in which a Republican New Mexico county commissioner said, “the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.” I mentioned in a blog post last week that I posted on Facebook a list of Trump’s worst transgressions with links proving them. One of the replies I received was simply, “He is still better than a Democrat.” I was so upset with that comment I wrote:
I am not so sure about that. He is a person who shows absolutely no compassion or understanding of human decency. As I said before, he's a bully and seems to enjoy putting other people down and calling them names. I dealt with bullies all the years I was in school, and I didn't like it then, and I do not like it now. It's really sad that people follow one party so much that they excuse a person's atrocious behavior only because he's not a member of the Democratic Party. A president should be a role model, and if you think Trump is a role model, then that makes me even sadder.
I received no response from the original commenter. While any decent person would have apologized, they obviously didn’t care enough to do so. That broke my heart; I’ve known this person all my life. She is a family friend, and I’m not sure I will ever be able to look at her again without total disgust. It may be too great a leap of generalization to say that Republicans are nasty people. But in their full-throated support for Trump no matter how nasty he gets, America’s Republicans promote nastiness.
Yes, they are. Their favorite pronoun is 'my:' my money, my taxes, my guns, my religion. Everything not pertaining to their 'my' gets treated badly and that makes them... actually, nasty might be too nice of a word.
ReplyDeleteAMEN!
ReplyDelete@Dave R, you resume it quite well.
USA is a «sick» country and need a HUGE politic anti virus to heal all those bad politic ideologies.
By having only two parties, not surprising that Americans have always been polarised in extreme way of thinking. Nothing new there and seems that there is a lack of leadership in USA to change it.
The other main issue in USA is lack of education in your country which is a plus for those extremists Republicans. Leaving the people in ignorance has always been the most effective weapon for dictators to rule without opposition. What is worse now is all these fake informations to arise the ignorant base against more liberal people and with the internet medias, it's going fast and is doing lot of arm no matter if those affirmations are false.
The latest tweet of «45» on that poor Buffalo 75yo man was such a disgrace, stupid and without any real background check fact that one could not approve it. Well, most of the Republicans whom was asked a comment about it just cowardly left no comments or did say such ridiculous answers that it's obvious they don't care or are bending over Trump like shameful dogs with their tails under their asses.
As long as this «hater» is in the White House and thar GOP are ruling USA, nothing will change in USA and HATE will be the main politic avenue of path.
All this in a USA that is supposed to be a «Christian» country.
Many are very FAR AWAY from Jesus Gospel teachings.
Not surprising to see «45» going cowardly out of the White House to show this Bible in front of a church even if he never attended a mass or is often spreading hate in his tweets so regularly and for many years.
There will be, or not, a HUGE revolution in USA soon or everything will never change in this narrow minded, bigot and racist America.
Joe, don't be surprised. The Republicans are dominated by a group that, in every way - economic, social and cultural - used to be dominant, the mainstream, and is now in sharp decline. Their values - white, heterosexual male, Christian, working class - are increasingly marginalized and their livelihoods (jobs) are vanishing. Their lack of education (non-college) means that they can't adapt to survival in the new digital economy. Moreover, too many of them are too aged to adapt - "I a stranger and afraid in a world I never made." They are desperate and self-deluding. They believed in 2016 that Trump was capable of turning the clock back. They are terrified of their opponents whom they see as the devil incarnate - hence the remark you quote. Very sad, Roderick P.S. Can you identify the poet? He was gay.
ReplyDeleteI loved this: "The American political climate needs a real and drastic change. The partisan hatred needs to stop. The nastiness needs to stop."
ReplyDeleteI will say, as a Democrat, I know plenty of Democrats who are nasty people, too: to other Democrats during the primaries and especially to Republicans. I received a lot of hate from more liberal acquaintances for my support of Pete Buttigieg. They still hate me for supporting Joe Biden in Buttigieg's absence. From being called a Democrat-in-Name-Only (DINO), to far more hateful comments, I have heard them. I laugh and carry on. I worry that there is no going back from where we are as a society. These are sad times.
In our home state of Alabama in 2010, I was young, but I remember Tim James saying nasty things in his campaign ads about undocumented immigrants. My Republican father was outraged and he used it as a teaching lesson for us. James' opponent, Bradley Byrne, was also outraged. Fast forward 10 years: my father is voting for someone far nastier than Tim James (Donald Trump) and Byrne said even nastier things about undocumented immigrants than James ever did (in his recent senate bid). It's kind of a "Go Set a Watchmen" moment for me.
@Dylan
ReplyDeleteThat is jsut one of my point here. Why in such a «Christian» and God loving country is there so much at large HATE from Americans toward one each other and mainly for the «other» that is another race or having more new politic ideas.
It's like USA hasn't evolved since 1950.
When those old «dinos» ideas will let the way to much modern ideas to lead the country, «maybe» USA will get out of all this desastres years of HATE.
Dave R, I agree with you. Nasty is not the right word for them. It should be a much stronger word. Maybe: abominations.
ReplyDeleteJiEl, yes, the United States has a ways to go maybe the breaking point has been met.
Roderick, I had to look the poem up because I was not familiar with it, but I am familiar with AE Housman. I quite like his poetry.
Dylan, I saw a lot of LGBT people who hated Pete, but I thought then, and I think now, we need someone like him. Biden will do, and quite honestly, I like Biden. The Democratic Party has to get away from old white men run in things. We need younger people in the party. That’s what the Alabama Democratic Party fought for and won. We need younger, and in my opinion a bit more moderate, voices in the DNC.
Remember that Trump never got a majority of voters in the Republican primaries until it was down to him and Cruz. Most Republicans didn't want him to represent the party. The dynamic changes when he becomes the nominee and then the POTUS. Officeholders feel an obligation to support the party leader, and "rank and file" also want to try to justify what their party is doing. This is true for Democrats as well, when they control the White House. That is a large part of why there is little public dissent. But see Republicans for the Rule of Law and the Lincoln Project, as well as The Bulwark, for examples of Republicans who openly oppose Trump. There are Never Trumpers still striving to bring some sanity within the party.
ReplyDeleteAs for the nastiness, I can't quote chapter and verse, but I remember the irrational hatred directed toward George W. Bush by many Democrats. But it goes back way before that. In the 19th Century, Democrats were called the party of "rum, Romanism, and rebellion." But what has changed over the past forty years or so has been the demonization of each party by the other. The opposition was not just mistaken about the policies they were pursuing. They wereenemies of the true America and would ruin the country. Our very existence depended on crushing them. And, again each party demonized the other in order to fire up their supporters and get them to vote. The demonization has intensified as we have gone along, and unfortunately the people have come to believe the leaders' propaganda.
So, are Republicans nasty people? A lot of them believe the propaganda they've been fed, and spew it back. But others are horrified by what has been going on. Officeholders don't condemn Trump because they are bowing to what they think are their constituents' wishes. (And I'm hopefle that we'll begin to see more like Romney and Murkowski who realize that standing up for what is right is more important for the country that staying in Donald Trump's good graces for a few more weeks or months.) Short answer: to demonize Republicans as a class as being nasty is to paint with far too broad a brush.
I love it when you get on a tear.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the nastiness has gotten out of hand. I understand how politics works. Each is trying to put forth their better ideas. Once we listened, compromised, and pulled the country forward for the good.
Now, each side is entrenched and no one is willing to come to the middle and work together for the betterment of the people. As you eloquently stated, this has been going on for a while, at least since Clinton's time as president, Newt G., the Tea Party, Moral Majority, and the list goes on.
Push forward to our present time and vile folks who once kept their nastiness to themselves and or like company, are now front and center in the public square. One wonders if we had these folks all along. Yes, Mildred, we have.
The Big Fat Orange One is really showing his tail feathers. I just can believe-rhetorical-folks are afraid of this man. Afraid of a tweet. Greed, power, and grift is a nasty bitch.
I step back at look at the Big Fat Orange One at a 3,000-foot view. What a sad man. Can't admit failure, weakness... The man has no curiosity to learn about things, to read, explore... The old saying is that when you know better, you do better. That is the way life should work. The Big Fat Orange One is stuck in the 60's. What a disappointing example for Barron as he navigates towards adulthood. No role model. I don't feel sorry for Barron's mother either. The Big Fat Orange One thinks we are new here. He lies like one breathes. No, the more you say it does not make it true. You would think when he lies there will be a tick of some sort. It's easy for him. I would not want to be his friend. Even causally. No integrity I say.
Our country has to come together or we will be like Rome. We have wasted our gifts through the Obama years and so far with this administration. Hopefully, with the election around the corner, we can start to steer the ship in the right direction.
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Joe, we are going to make it. It may be by the skin of our teeth but we will. Keep the faith. Be well dear.
The Republican flirtation with racists goes back to the 1960s. They noted that after the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Goldwater went down in flames, but won five Southern states. Even prior to that, Goldwater's supporters were traditionally what we thought of as Southern Democrats. (A quick aside: I'm always surprised by what people think an era was like. By the 1930s, the Ku Klux Klan were a national embarrassment outside of the South. In the 1940s, Hubert Humphrey out integration in the Democratic Party platform, and Truman desegregated the military, arguably the first steps toward the civil rights realignment. And this isn't unique: The 1950s anticommunism is in fact overblown. McCarthy was unanimously censured, the John Birch Society was a punchline, and "communism" was mostly a Southern dog whistle for integration.)
ReplyDeleteNext election, Nixon actively courted the racists. He was a moderate relative to Goldwater on most issues (meaning he wasn't as nihilistic about nuclear war) but on race? This is where you see coded language move from Klan-linked "Southern heritage" groups to national politics. So you see "racial preferences" (never referring to the big ones) or "welfare queens" (you'd never know there was just one, she was white, and she had a small criminal empire) or "states' rights" (the right to do what?) or "tough on crime" (but only some crimes, remember when cops hated vigilantes?). This was the era of Nixon and Reagan. The latter was still even sneakier, e.g. picking Philadelphia, MS, the site of a lynching, to kick off his election bid.
Something I want to get out of the way: No Democrat could beat either of these guys. The South was, is, out of play. California, Nevada, the Four Corners, these states were deep red. That's already over 300 electoral votes. Democrats could only win by being very fortunate. Carter could run against Nixon and Watergate. Clinton could win by plurality in most states because Perot, had the fortune of a terrible economy in 1992 and a boom in 1996, Bush was hurt by "read my lips" and Dole was a generally disagreeable fellow.
Regardless, something to understand about McGovern is, the fallout. Boomer Dems who knew nothing of politics blamed every Dem faction but the South, even though a Southern Democrat from this time would gladly deliver a two-hour, N-word-laced tirade about why Nixon is better than McGovern. And in the prior election, the youth rejected Humphrey over Vietnam. And the Boomers were generally more right-wing than prior generations, so relying on the youth was a bad idea.
The Boomer Dems got mean. Even in the 70s, centrist Democrats were already pushing supply-side nonsense and other Reagan-era maxims. This would continue through the DLC era. Which brings me to the Clintons. Funny thing, there was indeed fanaticism on both sides, but there were differences. Republicans were fanatically loyal to the theocrats, the anti-tax, anti-government crazies, the racists, etc. Democrats were fanatically loyal to Clinton, even through the charges of sexual harassment and rape. Those women were "bimbo eruptions" per the feminists of the day. Clinton could turn the entire feminist movement into an incel board. (Trust me, you really don't want to know what an incel is.) That was the force of his personality.
The reality is, Republicans have been like that since then. So have centrist Dems, but with the standard Libertarian "All your problems will be fixed in a truly free market." pablum. Now with a cargo cult to say the only way Democrats can win is to be like Bill "John Frum" Clinton.