Today’s GOP is not racist, as Harry Belafonte alleged about the tea party, but it is deeply troubled — about the expansion of government, about immigration, about secularism, about the mainstreaming of what used to be the avant-garde. People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children. (Should I mention that Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, used to be a lesbian?) This family represents the cultural changes that have enveloped parts — but not all — of America. To cultural conservatives, this doesn’t look like their country at all.
As with the Dixiecrats, the fight is not over a particular program — although Obamacare comes close — but about a tectonic shift of attitudes. I thank Dennis J. Goldford, professor of politics and international relations at Drake University in Des Moines, for leading me to a live performance on YouTube of Merle Haggard singing “Are the Good Times Really Over.” This chestnut, a lament for a lost America, has been viewed well more than 2 million times. It could be the tea party’s anthem.
2 comments:
Cohen is fooling himself. The GOP is ALL about racism. Why else would you have a "gag-reflex" over a mixed-race couple?? It's certainly not over "civil liberties and a small government rooted in the U.S. Constitution" - unless they are referring to the 3/5 clause of the Constitution.
The Tea party is made up of folks who - even if they live in trailer parks - want to have someone to look down on. So they cling to racism - and that somehow being a white, christian, American makes them "superior". I would say what this reminds me of but Godwin's Law would apply.
covered at balloon juice: http://www.balloon-juice.com/2013/11/12/lying-to-the-races/
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