https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-16-2024
"The complaint of Republican vice presidential candidate Senator J.D. Vance
(R-OH) last weekend on CNN that Democrats are bullying him by calling him weird
has stuck with me. As I wrote at the time, Republicans have made punching down
their stock in trade for decades, and Vance’s complaint suggests that the
Democrats are finally pushing back. It strikes me that behind this shifting
power dynamic is a huge story about American politics.
Since the 1950s, those determined to get rid of business regulation, social
welfare programs, government infrastructure spending, and federal protection of
civil rights have relied on a rhetorical structure that centers “real”
Americans who allegedly want nothing from government and warns that un-American
forces who want government handouts are undermining the country by bringing
socialism or racial, gender, or religious equality.
In 2024, that rhetoric is all the MAGA Republicans have left to attract voters,
as their actual policies are unpopular. Yesterday, Republican presidential
candidate Donald Trump told reporters at his Bedminster availability that to
win the 2024 election: “All we have to do is define our opponent as being a
communist or a socialist or somebody that's gonna destroy our country."
But it is not just Trump. A MAGA pundit has called Vice President Harris
“Hitler and Stalin combined but times 200,” and on Wednesday, Republicans in
Minnesota nominated Royce White as their candidate for the U.S. Senate. “We
face an enemy that intends to bastardize our citizenship through an idea called
globalism,” White has said. “We must begin to understand how the global affects
the local and take a stand for God, Family, and Country.” White has also said
that “women have become too mouthy,” and that “Donald Trump could get up on
stage, pull his pants down, take a sh*t up at the podium, and I still would
never vote for you f*cking Democrats again.”
The rhetorical strategy setting up Republicans against a dangerous “other” was
behind Trump’s demand that Republicans in Congress kill a bipartisan border
bill so that Trump could continue to demonize immigrants. You could see that
demonization of immigrants today in Vance’s straight-up lie that Vice President
Kamala Harris “wants to give $25,000 to illegal aliens to buy American homes.”
In fact, Harris today called for Congress to expand plans already in place in
the Biden administration, and none of those plans call for giving money to
undocumented migrants.
Also in that vein today was the announcement of Representative James Comer
(R-KY), chair of the House Oversight Committee, that he is opening an
investigation into Minnesota governor Tim Walz’s work in China. Walz is the
Democratic vice presidential nominee. He went to China in 1989 as part of a
teach-abroad program and went on to coordinate trips for students in China,
becoming a vocal advocate for human rights in that country as leaders cracked
down on opposition. But by suggesting this cultural exchange is nefarious,
Comer can seed the idea that Walz is somehow operating against the interests of
the United States.
This longstanding rhetoric that positions Republicans as true Americans
defending the country against those who would destroy it has metastasized into
the determination of MAGA Republicans to replace American democracy with a
Christian nationalism that cements the power of white patriarchy. Vance has
been in hot water for his derogatory remarks about “childless cat ladies”;
interviews have resurfaced in the past few days in which he embraced the idea
that the role of “the postmenopausal female” is to take care of grandchildren."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
