{"id":1848,"date":"2010-06-13T02:19:20","date_gmt":"2010-06-13T09:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=1848"},"modified":"2010-06-13T02:19:20","modified_gmt":"2010-06-13T09:19:20","slug":"how-to-scare-a-republican","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/06\/13\/how-to-scare-a-republican\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Scare a Republican"},"content":{"rendered":"

The GOP is the party of irrational fear mongering. Here are a few of their favorites, used to scare ignorant, brain-washed sheeple.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"GOPKoolAid\"<\/a> …So, here are ten of the most interesting things that absolutely terrify Wingnuttia. First, a few terrors of the real hard-core Right. For the Tea Partier, the midterm GOP primary voter, it\u2019s not just the anxiety over social change that typifies more traditional conservatism. A broad chunk of the GOP base today is animated by wildly unrealistic terrors — monsters stalking them as the sun sets, perhaps hovering just beyond their peripheral vision.  <\/p>\n

1. Government Concentration Camps <\/h5>\n

…Fear of Obama\u2019s Kenyan shock troops rounding up good conservatives and throwing them into Thunderdome-esque detention centers is nothing new on the Right…<\/p>\n

2. Moooslims! <\/h5>\n

If you pay attention to the Right, you might think there are large Islamic armies occupying a few majority-Christian countries these days instead of the other way around…<\/p>\n

3. They\u2019re Coming to Take Your Guns <\/h5>\n

…This irrational fear is cause for a certain amount of rational fear among others. There have been at least two incidents of (no doubt already unhinged) people who took this threat so seriously they gunned down police officers in cold-blooded attacks. <\/p>\n

4. Article 3 of the United States Constitution <\/h5>\n

Remember those Oath Keepers? They say they\u2019ll honor their pledge to uphold the United States\u2019 Constitution by defending against federal encroachment on states\u2019 rights\u2026<\/p>\n

5. Plotting Global Elites <\/h5>\n

…It\u2019s an increasingly popular conspiracy theory about a group of shadowy and mostly nameless international "elites" who are planning to "replace the United States" — in the words of Jerome Corsi, a key figure in the SwiftBoat Veterans for Truth project and a leading NAU conspiracist — with a transnational government… <\/p>\n

6. The Decline of Married White Christians <\/h5>\n

This one worries the operative class: the decline of married white people who identify as \u201cChristians.\u201d The GOP relies on them — they represent the party\u2019s most loyal demographic.  <\/p>\n

To be clear, there are a lot of white people, a lot of married people, and a lot of people who say they\u2019re Christians. But the share of American voters who are white and married and identify as Christians has been in a long and steep decline, and by every estimate will continue to fall…<\/p>\n

7. The Graying of the Culture Warriors <\/h5>\n

Because the plenty-plaint is so flexible, you can rest assured that tomorrow\u2019s conservatives will never run out of wedge social issues. Nonetheless, some of the most popular aren\u2019t being embraced by the kids these days, and that\u2019s cause for alarm among those trying to win some elections. <\/p>\n

An analysis by Columbia University statisticians found<\/a> a \u201cgeneration-gap\u201d on support for same-sex marriage that they called \u201chuge.\u201d According to the nerds, \u201cIf policy were set by state-by-state majorities of those 65 or older, none would allow same-sex marriage. If policy were set by those under 30, only 12 states would not allow-same-sex marriage.\u201d …<\/p>\n

8. White Minority Status<\/h5>\n

Many people believe that in 2050, if birth and immigration rates do what experts expect them to, white folk will become a minority in the United States…<\/p>\n

9. And the Browning of America <\/h5>\n

Among the political class a more reasonable fear is that the base\u2019s boiling rhetoric over immigration will permanently alienate Latinos and Asian Americans, two fast-growing voting blocs that are heavily concentrated in a handful of key swing states. Rather than shaking over the prospect of a white demographic minority like Buchanan, they\u2019re afraid the venom coming from Republicans like Tom Tancredo (R-CO) and JD Hayworth (R-AZ) will saddle them with a structural inability to win national elections for a generation…  <\/p>\n

10. Unions <\/h5>\n

Here\u2019s another one that scares the Right-wing coastal elitists who in fact run the conservative movement, the operatives.  <\/p>\n

Most people understand that the Right\u2019s corporate patrons don\u2019t care for organized labor because it hurts the bottom line. But there\u2019s another thing to fear: Union members are more likely to vote their economic interests than be blinded by culture war distractions\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Alternet<\/a>><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve given you just a taste of this fine article, including just a snippet from each of the ten fears.  I urge you to click through for the entire article for all the rich detail and documentation.<\/font><\/p>\n

I fail to understand how people can be so deluded.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The GOP is the party of irrational fear mongering. Here are a few of their favorites, used to scare ignorant, brain-washed sheeple. …So, here are ten of the most interesting things that absolutely terrify Wingnuttia. First, a few terrors of the real hard-core Right. For the Tea Partier, the midterm GOP primary voter, it\u2019s not […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}