What I’ve seen on TV for the past 11 years or so from the Republicans (basically, since I started paying attention) has consistently sickened me. Perhaps I came into political awareness at a rough time, when George W. was at the helm, and his Congress was tagging along behind him. When I was talking with Republicans in New Hampshire, I felt much less sickened; they’re people who are struggling to find answers, and are desperately turning to guys who are more carnival barkers hawking the same ol’ snake oil, tax cuts for the rich and deregulation, that they’ve been tossing out there for the past 30 years. The Republican establishment is repugnant, but their followers far less so. You talk with them a bit, and find people who are cheering desperately for their team, because they really believe, even if only emotionally and in heavy denial, that we’re in this sorry state that we’ve found ourselves because the other team had a little bit of control. If you consider how they cheer deregulation as though the only thing that got us into this economic mess was too much banking and Wall Street regulation, it’s just absurd enough to make them make sense. It’s strange, although the politicians aren’t in denial about how our rather sharp decline began, those in the crowd truly seem to believe that it’s all Obama and the Democrat’s fault.
In retrospect, looking upon the political activity of the past 3 years, the only time I had seen Washington in a frenzy of activity was during the lame duck session, when Democrats forced Republicans to try to defend their shooting down the Zadroga Bill (none of them would on camera), and threw Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and the Dream Act up on the to do list as well. They were able to get the Zadroga Bill (which Republicans instantly worked tirelessly to defund and deny cancer patients their treatment) through, and worked through the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. The Dream Act, unfortunately, is something people are still working to get back to Congress. Other than that, after initially sucking up to Obama when he was popular while crapping on him and his proposals when he wasn't in the room, the essential Republican attitude has been "we need to take the country back to 100% Republican rule, and nothing that Obama proposes, including legislation that was previously proposed by Republicans, is alright because he touched it and now it has his cooties," and they’ve been really good at implementing that; when Mitch McConnel said that the first priority of the Republican party was to make Obama a one-term president last year, overlooking our devastated economy, skyrocketing unemployment, or the two wars and tax cuts which created a crater where our economy used to be, he really, really wasn't fucking around.
The Republicans have filibustered everything important the Democrats have tried to pass, and it’s been largely successful, requiring a 2/3 vote that the Democrats couldn’t keep when the public realized that there was no way they were going to actually change anything even with 2/3rd’s of the Congress; had the flurry of activity and discipline shined through earlier, I don’t think the Democrats would have lost their “supermajority.” It seems as though the same people who buy guns in droves when Obama looks like he’s going to be re-elected, even though he hasn’t touched 2nd Amendment rights in his tenure, fall straight back into their “good ol’ boys vs. dirty, unpatriotic hippies” narratives.
The narratives that I typically find seem to be a cemented divide from the 60’s, a cultural hangover on both ends from the Progressive movement drawing the hippy vs. redneck lines, where someone being a Republican (or any political affiliation for that matter) is a cultural matter similar to going to a Church when you no longer believe, rather than one of logical thought and careful decision: they show up, get preached to, get fired up at the right moments and then leave, however, in the Church of Partisanship, you vote on your way out after being jerked around about “American Exceptionalism” from a man far more handsome and rich than your average preacher.
A prime example of this is the College Republican Crew: they can easily be spotted by their button down shirts, slacks/dress pants and impeccably combed hair that looks like it came off of Bieber’s head. They symbolize that sort of lack of cynicism about Republicans’ role in the process which is typically only found through the Socratic method, and they choose to stay close to their ideological brethren, similar to the bubble George W. lived in. When I was traveling through New Hampshire, I met one of those very College Republicans mentioned above, perfectly groomed enough to look like every Republican closet case about to be outted in an airport gloryhole. He was large enough to give the appearance that he was really 1/2 of Rush Limbaugh with a convincing hairpiece that had broken off of the rest of the man-dumpling that is Rush. When asked about possible cooperation between the Tea Party and Occupy Wallstreet, he said that it wouldn’t happen because George Sauros was behind Occupy. Considering how I hadn’t seen any benefits from Sauros at Occupy Oakland (which is not to say it wasn’t there, however, it certainly wasn’t as prevalent as he believed), and the extensive backing of the Tea Party by Dick Army and FOX News, I found it a bit misinformed if not completely one-sided, but he was sharp nonetheless. He talked about how Occupy would splinter (which I agree with) and maybe some of the factions would be pure enough for the Tea Party to work with.
I don’t think, however, that this 1/2 of Rush will ever willingly shake a dirty, unpatriotic hippy hand if he can possibly avoid it intellectually, actively pushing himself in another direction. This isn’t completely unfounded: just look at how we look at each other. Nowadays we’re often judged by the fringe groups, the guys who use at least borderline racist signs attacking Obama are comparable to the guys who want to turn the country into one giant commune at Occupy. The real difference that I’ve found is that the hippies will swallow their pride a lot sooner and admit that they’re wrong or at least need to listen to another opinion to help their own. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of conservatives that are willing to listen, however, they are a bit more likely to throw their hands up in frustration and find their fallback position, whether it’s their religion on abortion when faced with banning abortion for rape victims, or “they’re illegal and shouldn’t be here in the first place” in the case of the Dream Act.
In that New Hampshire crowd at a University (I believe Manchester U), I talked with a crowd that, while somewhat energized by the occasion, was not particularly excited by the candidate. When he came out, there was a cacophony of applause and screams, as though Aerosmith just took the stage for a long overdue reunion tour. I turned around to face the crowd from the front row and snap a quick photo. To my left was a woman screaming for Romney like an elderly Backstage Betty, while the woman to my right’s face twisted and contorted while her teeth ground, making a face I had never seen before, and hope never to see again. It was a feeling, however, I’ve seen before only in football stadiums: this is their guy, he’s about to be sent off to war, and it’s our damn job to show him where the definition of “fanatic” came from. None of them seemed to be screaming for anyone in particular, it seemed more as if they were following their programming, desperate to believe. One thing is for sure, if they could ever realize how the plantation owners are turning their minimum wage minions on each other to keep the pitchforks and torches at bay for just a little bit longer, playing guys like Occupy and the Tea Party against each other, the overlap in various spontaneous political demonstration groups on all ends would be able to force the process a bit away from its current, absurd state of affairs.