While the GOP presidential primary is sputtering to a close, activity is high on other fronts: SuperPac's are raking in corporate donations and strategists are at work figuring out how to win independent, swing voters who will decide the 2012 presidential election.
President Obama, with the advantages of incumbency, is mobilizing individual donors, but the engorgement of money pipelines (thanks to the Bush Supreme Court's Citizen United decision) has so far been a Republican dream. Instead of the circular firing squad (typically a Democratic spectacle but not this GOP primary cycle), Republicans are attempting to circle the wagons around Mitt Romney.
Jeb Bush, former Florida governor, appears to be playing an important role. We noted the hypocrisy last week of Bush claiming to be upset about fear-based politics when the historical record is clear: ginning up fear-based politics has been a pillar of Republican strategy to make Obama a one-term president. Nevertheless, having Jeb Bush lead what amounts to a fake retreat from what has been so profitable for the party is noteworthy.
A November 2010 poll by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute found that "solid majorities of Tea Party supporters (61 percent) and Republicans (56 percent) agreed with the statement, "today, discrimination against whites is as big a problem as discrimination against Blacks and other minorities." In the overall sample, 44 percent agreed and 54 percent disagreed." ("The Age of Austerity", Thomas Byrne Edsall, 2012)
The barely concealed anxiety of the Tea Party supporters throbs to the constant drum of fear. The economic crisis and housing market crash that enveloped millions of homeowners who risked more than they could afford is a raw wound, especially for the sense of entitlement that has been, in modern times, a key feature of the promise of wealth and the American dream. Taxpayers, whose mortgages are underwater, are waiting on the one hand for the miracle to come and on the other hand desperate to assign blame. No wonder that Tea Party placards like "The American Taxpayers Are The Jews For Obama's Ovens" resonate so powerfully.
These messages play uniquely to the GOP's disaffected white base and account for such bizarre phenomenon as the knee-jerk antipathy toward Barack Obama for his mixed race. But how will this help with independent, swing voters? Not at all. If Barack Obama wins re-election in November, it will prove the old saying, "live by the sword, die by the sword". The GOP, through Jeb Bush, may pretend to be finished with fear-based politics, but that genie is not so easily stuffed back into the bottle.
As the spring turns to summer, it will be interesting to see if admission of error is included in the Republican playbook for November 2012.
3 comments:
There is no such thing as an independent voter.
David: Why is it then that voters on the rolls show as R, D, I?
Would you please explain your reasoning?
Thanks
They write it, they say, they might even lie to themselves. The are posers, democrats or republicans who pose as independents. It is like non partisan elections. The first thing everyone asks you when you walk door to door: What is your party.
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