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It started in 1964 with Barry Goldwater's massive loss to LBJ.
LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and still won in a landslide. But he knew he was giving an opening to the Republicans.
Who looked at 1966 results in reaction to the CRA and thought "hmm."
Who looked at 1966 results in reaction to the CRA and thought "hmm."
It broke up the Solid South. (Ye Olde Blue Wall that FDR had made a deal with the devil to keep.) We lost the Arkansas and Florida gubernatorial elections and 47 seats in the House.
That's when Nixon famously decided to use the Southern Strategy to peel off white people angry that Democrats decided to treat POC as the Americans they were rather than the second class citizens that white people thought they were.
Pardon me, the inroads started in 1962 ()
Anyway, the Republicans went all in with Nixon because they wanted power. They hadn't had it for a long time and they wanted it back.
Nixon was somewhat liberal on some things (environment for instance) but he was happy to do whatever it took to get into the White House. The Republicans mostly went along.
Many of the people who pop up later got their training during that time.
Lee Atwater
Karl Rove
Roger Stone
Newt came later but he paid attention to what these guys were doing.
Lee Atwater
Karl Rove
Roger Stone
Newt came later but he paid attention to what these guys were doing.
Thanks to decisions that Nixon made without the concurrent proper management of the economy, his being clearly so corrupt everyone wanted him gone, and Ford's pardon of him, the Republicans lost massively in 1976.
We got Carter. An ACTUAL NEOLIBERAL POLITICIAN. Who was good on environment. Not so much on regulations or making Americans feel sunny.
The recession that was occurring because of Paul Volker's attempt to correct the problems of the 1970s economy gave an opening for a racist asshole out of California who soothed white people's anxiety about how those non-whites getting anything other than a boot to the face.
Reagan was in, America had a new morning and the Republicans started figuring out how to hide their massive corruption better but not perfectly.
In fact, this is the second time that the Republicans had committed treason to either get power or stay in power. Nixon committed it first with Vietnam, and this time, it was the Reagan Administration.
The third time, in my never humble opinion, is in 2016. Anyway, the Reagan-Bush Administration officials learned a lot about how to hide what they were doing. Hence their ability to hide much of what Bush II was doing.
That was in the White House. MEANWHILE Bill Clinton, the best politician of HIS era, beat Bush I and Perot to have no where near the number of votes his wife later got and went into the White House.
Newt Gingrich, who had been watching all of this nonsense from the House, had finally accrued enough seniority to put into place a plan that combined the worst of everything that Republicans had done. His GOPAC laid the foundations on how to run for the House and Senate.
Never educate.
Always go negative.
Never apologize.
Never compromise.
It resulted in his getting power in 1994's surprise landslide against the Democrats.
Always go negative.
Never apologize.
Never compromise.
It resulted in his getting power in 1994's surprise landslide against the Democrats.
This started the non-stop investigations into everything that the Clintons did. Republicans had power in the House and were going to use it. They had a buddy in Kenneth Starr who fed them everything he got.
This led to a distancing by Al Gore for the 2000 election from the Greatest Politician Of His Generation and the eventual "loss" in that election. Republicans, again, using everything they had no matter how appalling the abuse was, forced the shut down of the Florida recount.
About that time a new news org was created by Rupert Murdoch who used the fact that cable is free to do whatever the fuck it wants to create the monster that is Fox News. The final piece was in place.
Republicans forgot something though.
1. Voters don't like the incumbent party when the economy is scarily bad (2008).
2. Voters also don't like it when major American cities are destroyed while Bush plays guitar. (2006)
1. Voters don't like the incumbent party when the economy is scarily bad (2008).
2. Voters also don't like it when major American cities are destroyed while Bush plays guitar. (2006)
However, all of the power stealing they have done led to the right results with Shelby Co v Holder stripping the power from the VRA of 1965 and the subsequent Republican led voter suppression in every state they can get their hands on.
Which, thanks to their equal love of using racism to gain power, they had the ability to with white people once again acting like we always do as a group when POC gain a tiny bit.
I didn't mention the tax revolts of the 1970s but that was racist based too so it is all part of this ugly ball of racism and power abuse that Republicans have been happy to do for decades.
And we have no idea how to fix it.
And we have no idea how to fix it.
Well...
I mean.
*coughs*
I mean.
*coughs*
