I am just old enough to recall a time, in the 1970s, when racism wasn’t yet endemic to the Republican Party and many of its leaders still stood for decency and dignity. Yes, Nixon had just exploited his Southern strategy, and his minions undermined fair campaining with their ratfucking. Racism as strategy and tactic was gaining a foothold among Republicans. And let’s be clear: Overt, blatant racism was still more hoffähig among all white Americans than it is today. But the Republican Party was still to some extent the party of Lincoln – and “Southern Democrat” was still synonymous with “racist,” which to some degree limited the Republicans’ ability to exploit prejudices.
Decent Republicans still exist, though you’d hardly know it from the hoohah raised over the Cordoba House. I just loved this remark (via the Daily Dish):
It may not make me popular with some people, but I think probably the President was right about this. I do believe that people of all religions have a right to build edifices or structures, places of religious worship or study where the community allows them to do it under zoning laws and that sort of thing. And that we don’t want to turn an act of hate against us by extremists into an act of intolerance for people of religious faith. And I don’t think it should be a political issue. It shouldn’t be a Republican or Democrat issue either. I believe Governor Christie from New Jersey said it as well, that this should not be in that political partisan marketplace.
That’s Ted Olson speaking. His wife, Barbara, was killed in the 9/11 attacks. So what was that again about “hallowed ground” and “the 9/11 families”? Is Olson not among their numbers?
Between this statement and Olson’s principled fight for marriage equality in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, I could just about bring myself to vote for him if he ever ran for office.
What would it take to encourage more Republicans of this stripe?
(And by the way, kudos to Governor Christie, too.)
Patron cat of Kittywampus (1985-2001)
I am a fan of Republican Governor Charlie Crist, who is now running as an independent for senate in Florida. He has not left the Republican party, however.
He has come out in favor of allowing the Cordoba house to be built in the name of religious freedom and the first amendment. He has to run as an independent because he is facing an extreme right wing tea party challenger. It is a shame that these loud fringe elements are forcing the last moderates from the Republican party.
Good for Crist. Really, religious freedom ought to be a consensus issue, especially among those with extreme religious beliefs! After all, the First Amendment protects their right to hold whatever extreme beliefs they like.
Sometimes I wonder if the fringe elements will provoke a backlash, with more people distancing themselves from them (like Crist). Sometimes I think this is wishful thinking.
“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.” This was a quote from the last election that, hardly surprisingly, was pretty incendiary to some. I viewed it as being a fairly accurate depiction of those to which it was directed, elements of the “religious right” that support ever more expansion of the national security state and perpetual war.
The most important battle in American politics is not between Republicans and Democrats. Rather, it is within the GOP, between the advocates of limited government that seek “peace, prosperity & liberty” and the neocon statists that gave us disasterous wars, fiscal chaos and a trashing of the Bill of Rights. Given the chance, I have no doubts they would give us repeat performances.
The sad fact is that the religious right is so susceptible to neocon propaganda. The ease with which how people can be so easily propagandized is all too obvious when you read about the proposed “Cordoba House”. Propaganda so often taps into base prejudice. So I find it truly horrifying to see how cynically and easily it is used. Although I disagree with him on many issues, I have never doubted “Mr Newtron’s” intellect. His comments likening building of “Cordoba House” to putting a swastikas beside Holocaust Memorials plumbed depths that astounded even me. (Well, maybe not.) But Ladbrokes have him as 25/1 to win the presidency in 2012 so I would not doubt that he cynically calculated that pandering to prejudice wouldn’t hurt him in the primaries. Doesn’t come more nasty than that.