That excellent American Prospect article that Cole references below got me thinking about just how Republicans plan to get what they’re going to need to win, something like 70% of the male vote in November. It’s a ridiculous, unattainable bar to get that kind of percentage voting for any of the Clown Car Kids. The plan has to be to get as many of them as possible to vote against President Obama and the Democrats, then. As I mentioned Wednesday over at ABL’s place:
It will not be long now until we descend past 2008′s nadir of Obama Waffles and 2010′s witch doctor with a bone through the nose and hit actual use of ni-CLANG. It’s only March, people. We’ll get there by Memorial Day at this rate.
I still believe that, which is why the millisecond Romney wraps this tragedy of a primary season up (yes, still convinced Romney will prevail) the sewage will flow like nothing you’ve ever seen before. And Romney and the SuperPACs will have one goal in mind: to basically get every voting-eligible white male into a booth and cast a vote against President Obama, the Democrats, and anyone who isn’t a voting-eligible white male.
2008 was nothing compared to what’s coming once R-money’s Pretty Hate Machine is fully operational. The side effect of how soul-destroyingly horrid the attacks will be is to try to depress everyone else into not voting at all. Only by lowering the turnout to the worst levels ever seen in modern election history will Romney be able to win. It’s the only shot he’s got, and everyone knows it at this point.
All he has to do is draw a near-permanent chalk outline around the sprawled body politic. Not taking anything for granted myself, not with Citizens United in play. Neither should you. We need to get out there.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
At this point the advertisers of other products and services should start to become alarmed, because once the saturation level carpet bombing of political ads begins, nobody in this country will want to turn on their TV or answer their phone, until mid-November. That could have adverse consequences for folks who are trying to reach new customers.
Dave C
How dare you sully the reputation of an excellent album like Pretty Hate Machine with comparisons to Romney’s disgusting campaign! I am outraged, sir. Outraged!
David Koch
nOW iS tHE tIME tO lISTEN tO oUR pROGRESSIVE bETTER aND pRIMARY bARRY! iSN’T nOT tOO lATE!
Steve
As a straight white male I’m sort of resigned to going through life consumed by liberal guilt. It’s kind of cool, though, to think that I might be able to serve some useful purpose as a sleeper agent working in opposition to the dreaded White Agenda.
Ash Can
They’ll also be relying on the voter suppression laws they’ve been enacting.
Bubblegum Tate
@Ash Can:
They’ll be relying on them quite heavily, in fact. They don’t need to hit these massive vote numbers so long as they prevent Democrats from being allowed to vote.
dollared
Republicanism: it’s the Schlitz of political parties.
Shawn in ShowMe
I too am concerned about turnout but more because the Congressional candidates in battleground states need all the help they can get.
Obama = Jedi in his prime
House Democrats = Ewoks
dollared
Next: prohibiting women from driving, followed by Voter ID laws requiring a driver’s license. See? It’s pretty easy if you just do a little planning…
Southern Beale
Yes, of course, and I wrote that exact sentiment back in January. Great minds think alike. Except it will be even worse. There is NO bottom to the right wing smear machine. When all you have is hate, everyone looks like a scary mugger hiding in the shadows ready to rape your white women.
If you thought the Clinton impeachment was bad, the Swift Boat Veterans were bad, the “palled around with terrorists” and Jeremiah Wright and whitey tape crap was bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
We’ve known this was coming but the question is, what do we do about it? How do we prepare for the coming avalanche of corporate-funded hate and smear-mongering? There WILL be a Corsi-penned “Obama is a secret black militant” book coming out and there WILL Be a documentary based on doctored videotapes that will be aired on Sinclair broadcasting stations 2 weeks before the election. I mean Christ on a cracker, we KNOW this.
What do we do? Do we prepare preemptive comedy routines? Do we reissue “Bob Roberts”? I mean jesus, that can’t be it. This is a cult mindset and you need to SHOCK people to get them out of their cult rapture. How do we do it?
Lev
I don’t think this reasoning holds. Dropping n-bombs would eradicate the assumption that conservatives are the enlightened ones on race and that liberals are the real racists, somehow. It eliminates that plausible deniability, which they will try to protect even if they have to lose a Senate Majority Leader every now and then.
My guess is Romney tries to play all sides. He panders to Hispanics with a VP nominee while also pandering to the Minutemen types. The SuperPACs of his will reheat Rezko/Ayers/”Typical White Person” ad nauseam, with little effect. Post-Tea Party, I think that whole racial well is tapped for all they’re going to get from it, which is why Republicans had to shift to those nasty whorish women, after all. And to be perfectly honest, Romney is so totally “not one of us” in the Jesse Helms sense that I don’t think he’ll be able to benefit too much from stirring up racial animus, the other half of that equation doesn’t balance right. Though I wouldn’t bet against his trying to. The rationalizations come too easy to him, I fear.
New Yorker
This white male of eligible voting age feels no connection whatsoever to a doofus driving around with a Confederate flag bumper sticker and his car radio tuned to Rush Limbaugh.
Jon Stewart is a white male. So is Matt Taibbi. Group me with them please.
MattF
I think, pretty soon, particularly if the economy continues to improve, that Mitt will start saying that a smart businessperson shouldn’t be anticipating a recovery, and therefore should start firing people– and the sooner the better. “Speaking as a successful businessman”, needless to say.
BGinCHI
Who wants to predict how long it will take for a candidate who no one likes to overdo it with negative campaigning such that it rebounds on him?
David Koch
@New Yorker:
they’re not white males, they’re Jews (not that there’s anything wrong with that)
/costanza’d
piratedan
@dollared: I’m sorry ma’am are you licensed to be carrying that child? I’ll need to see your racial purity card and a certificate of fatherhood/ownership….
It’s funny, if women had as many rights as gun owners, guys would have to be registered nationally before we would be allowed to ask the fairer sex out for a date. Because we can’t even begin to raise the issue about whether you can reduce the size of the clip that you have for semi-automatic pistols before they start trotting out “they’ll be coming for our guns next!” stridently as if they were being violated…
yet placing foreign objects inside your Mom, Sister, Spouse and/or Daughter on the chance that she’s pregnant and trying to decide if to keep the baby, regardless if the baby is healthy, regardless of how she got pregnant … well all of that is perfectly okay, hell, your doc can lie to you if need be, because by the time you have the kid, who are you gonna blame because they’re stripping you of those rights too…
RD
I loved Chris Matthews’ response to the Morning Joe team and their ongoing attempt to humanize, and perhaps resurrect Sarah Palin.
I still don’t understand why so many emoprogs give him shit.
Anonne
It’s Sarah Palin that is the Pretty Hate Machine. Don’t invoke her into this election too!!
beltane
@David Koch: Yes, I believe that membership in the resurrected He-Man’s Woman Haters Club is limited to white, Christian males of northern European descent. They will accept some token members of other groups as long as their numbers don’t threaten to dominate the core membership.
I understand their strategy but I’m not sure how the GOP will be able to attract that subset of males who enjoy the use of functioning brain cells and are in mutually satisfying relationships with their female partners.
The Other Chuck
@Anonne:
Palin was never all that good looking, and now age is really catching up with the ugliness on the inside.
Megyn Kelly on the other hand…
Linda Featheringill
@Southern Beale:
I don’t know. But we need to start asking that question now.
I see that Obama is pushing back against lies rapidly these days and the DCCC is too. Maybe that’s the thing to do.
Jeff
@Steve: Ha, I’ve thought about that too. As I look like everyone’s dream repubican,(50’s fat and white )I love to blow their minds with Sosulist opinions.
Martin
You know what’s going to be really cool about this? Obama is going to bait them the whole way through. He knows they can’t resist falling for it.
dollared
@piratedan: I really think it’s a slow stripping away of each of the more rational right wingers, and we are now well below 27%. The singularity really is approaching. Limbaugh just got sucked in.
Catsy
@Lev:
…as opposed to the devastating and increasing subtlety of their DID I MENTION BARRY HUSSEIN OSAMA IS A BLACKETY-BLACK MUSLIN NI-CLANG WHO IS NOT LIKE YOU AND I campaign of the last four+ years?
If that nominee is Rubio, that ain’t gonna work out quite as well as they think. It’s more likely to be a case of stepping on their own dicks the way Grumpy did with Caribou Barbie.
There are many different flavors of “Hispanic”, and they do not necessarily like each other very much or have very much in common. That goes double for the Cuban expat community from which Rubio hails.
Martin
@Lev:
Like McCain pandered to women by naming Palin and then lost the woman vote by 12 points?
The problem is that women and minorities are not at stupid as the GOP thinks women and minorities are.
Dee Loralei
Seriously folks, go to mybarackobama.com and do the “I’m in” thing. You will hopefully be contacted by a local group who are working to get the President re-elected. You can also look on the front page for events in your area. Get out there! Even if you aren’t in a state that really matters, solidly blue or red. We need your help! I’m in TN and we’ll mostly be calling folks in NC and other border purple states, like MO when it gets closer to election day. But right now, we’re building up our group in our local community, registering new voters, making sure old voters have proper ID and laying the foundation for fall actions. We’re having a blast and meeting lots of very fun local like-minded folks. Dare I even say it, making friends. We need you, the President needs you and yes, your country needs you. We’ve seen what the Republicans are doing on a state level, and what they are trying to do in the house. If we don’t get Obama re-elected you KNOW exactly what they will be doing on the National level. And they’ll start a fucking war with Iran!
Please sign up to help. You can and will also be helping local Dems too.
RD
@The Other Chuck:
Nah, she’s too guarded.
Ann Coulter is where the action is.
dollared
@Catsy: This. Ask the average Dominican in Florida what they think of Rubio….
Another Halocene Human
@RD: Because he’s a ridiculous buffoon who is easy to laugh at? Plus his remarks when the Catholic Bishop contraception non-troversy started. Also. Additionally.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Catsy:
Not to mention that it completely blows away all of the “two citizen parent” birfers. They have already been saying that Rubio is not eligible to cover their racist asses because to pivot on that principle would show them for what they are.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Dee Loralei:
NC is not purple. We (and many like me) turned it blue last Presidential election. We have a Dem governor. Now true, our legislature went totally red in 2010 but so did a lot of other state legislatures. Most recent combined poll shows POTUS beating any of the repubs by 10 points.
PanurgeATL
With all due respect, all this was in the cards the moment the effort to come up with a new kind of white male (i.e., “hippies”, etc.) was left to gather dust around 1980. One thing the GOP knows is that connecting itself with a cool tribal identity gets votes. Liberals think this tribal identity is “white male”, but no, it’s “SQUARE (or, if you want, “mid-century traditional”) white male”. Make being square cool again and watch the GOP votes roll in.
That’s why, for example, gay marriage and gays in the military don’t signify a leftward turn for the country–they’ve just expanded eligibility for the Square People’s Club a bit, that’s all. Conservatives may be displeased, but they shouldn’t be, because what’s really happening is due to a set of conditions which they created and to which liberals very unwisely acquiesced (it being a, ahem, lower priority and all). Going with the flow isn’t always the canny and clever option.
PTirebiter
If it really comes to that surely the country’s clergy would step in to help separate the
racesdark forces from the forces ofwhiterightlight and call upon our better angels.JR
Don’t forget 2008’s truest insanity: what do you think a Republican PUMA movement will look like? Do we think Rick Santorum’s devotees are just going to go quietly into that good night, or fall in line behind Mitt? If there’s a chance of the delegate math not guaranteeing a Romney win–that is, at least 1,144 bound delegates pledged to R-money–then there’s going to be a faction that keeps fighting. And in a party that values purity over pragmatism, that could get pretty ugly.
gbear
If you filter out the gay white males (say 10%), the percentage of straigh white males that the republican party will need is closer to 78%. Not going to happen.
PS: I’m going to make a habit of copying my comments before I submit. About half of my attempts wind up with an error message. Can this get fixed?
RD
@Another Halocene Human:
He’s a former Rizzocrat from Northeast Philly, as is Michael Smerconish.
Both of them voted for Obama.
Emma
@Catsy: And a goodly number of us in that community dislike the little smug prig as much as anyone else.
AA+ Bonds
Projecting trends out to November is ridiculous but if you really wanted to do that, there’s no way Romney can win with the resulting odds, not in any way that reflects the real universe
hitchhiker
@RD:
Well, if you were among the roughly half of Democrats who thought that Hillary Clinton would probably be a good president (not talking about the pumatics) it was disturbing to see his unabashed bias against her on a nightly basis. That might be one reason. He wasn’t secretive about how much he hated her.
Calouste
@gbear:
I wouldn’t be suprised if gay white males vote majority Republican. For every Dan Savage there is an Andrew Sullivan and an in-the-closet GOP representative.
RD
@hitchhiker:
The thing is, you lost.
Time to get over it.
Brian
This is what I have been saying. The R’s know they want to just make everyone hate politics so much that they don’t even bother any more. And of course the giant assist from the media with the both sides do it stuff makes them think everyone is all the same.
Martin
@RD: Really? So the only reason we’re still allowed to be pissed at the watermelon in front of the white house and witchdoctor photo people is because Obama won? If McCain had won, all would be forgiven?
Are you sure it’s supposed to work that way?
BGinCHI
@Brian: Thank god then for the new GOP governors who are reminding many people just how materially and actually shitty their lives can be made by awful politicians.
rikyrah
I’m with you, Zander. I feel ya.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
They always do this, up to a point. Knowing full well there are quite a few pontential voters out there that long ago ditched politics as well as voting. Most of them are practical or pragmatic types that are put off by all the ideological screeching mostly from the right, but some from the left as well.
The danger for the wingers going to far with this kind of strategy, as a prime strategy is generating a backlash from those estranged voters shocked into caring by the sheer cruelty and insanity of republicans. Plus, the public is paying closer attention to politics, as they usually do when the economic situation is bad.
Personally, I don’t think they have any strategy at this point, other than day to day free associative demagoguing and with gold fever from the CU decision to go all in with a perennial GOP resource, oodles of cash. And as their awful candidates, likely end up with the awful Romney, the double downs will increase exponentially as the futility of beating Obama in a recovering job market carries most likely on.
There is no one in charge, and the GOP of today must have that to tame their coalition of the crazy. And good luck taming the tea tards. They are in love with their brilliant selves and bright ideas, regardless of what destruction that causes.
I don’t think Obama is taking anything for granted with the known built in advantages the GOP has with the electorate, and neither should we. But I am not going to obsess about what could happen, as my philosophy remains what will be will be. If the citizens of this country can’t see fit to reject the lunatic republicans, then that was the karma all along. And unless living under a rock, there should be nary a soul in this country not exposed to that lunacy by the time voting starts.
RD
@Martin:
You tell me:
@hitchhiker:
JPL
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero): Anything a repub president does that negatively affects the economy will be blamed on the previous administration. It’s the way it works after all it wasn’t Clinton that improved the economy it was Reagan.
jl
I can’t find an election or approval poll that breaks things out by race ethnicity and gender. But from one way breakdowns of polls I looked at, assuming about 95 percent of blacks and around 70 percent of hispanics approve, or lean towards voting for Obama, that leaves about 40 to 45 percent of white males who approve or lean towards voting for Obama.
So, GOP racist dog whistles will turn between a quarter and a third of them toward Richy Rich Romney or no more sexytime for anybody Rih?
I guess it could be done, but does not seem like a great strategy from a pure win/lose point of view, even forgetting about the immorality and depravity.
If the employment situation keeps improving and Obama can talk better sense on jobs and economy, that will be a very strong reason to vote for Obama, even for your standard issue white male.
Full disclosure: I am white male. At least by recent standards.
Martin
@RD: So you think Hillary deserved it? Well, okay then. Missing the point, but good to know.
Nellie in NZ
They don’t need a majority of votes; they just need it close enough that they can smear the difference with cheating. Still don’t accept that Ohio vote in 2004, among others.
beltane
There is little the GOP can do that would shock me any more. My opinion regarding their very humanity has sunk so low that I am amazed at their ability to function in society at any level. To me, Republicans in action are kind of like chimpanzees who have taught to paint. I’m always like “Wow, people that dumb can actually flush a toilet? That’s incredible.”
RD
@Martin:
Why are we still talking about what’s been decided?
Davis X. Machina
Given enough pick-up trucks, and enough sports-talk radio, and enough hawt daughters, nothing is impossible.
Not even a full term for Sen. Scott Brown.
Raven
@RD: The Swiftboats Vets for truth ring a bell?
RD
@Raven:
No. Ring it again for shits and giggles.
Steve
@RD: Nice post. No one should care that Chris Matthews is a raging misogynist, because Hillary lost the primary. You’re a peach.
Shawn in ShowMe
Matthews may be a reliable Democratic vote but he’s not a reliable liberal voice in the media. One day you’re sending thrills up his leg, the next day he’s using GOP talking points like “hard-working white Americans.”
danielx
I had to go see the cartoon at ABL’s site. And then had to write a response to Mr. Lester…
That was as far as I went there, but…yes, I am suggesting it’s possible that Mike Lester is a misogynist, racist pigfucker. Just speculating, you understand. All in fun, of course! Just entertainment! No harm intended! No offense meant….there. Do I sound as sincere as Rush Limbaugh?
RD
@Steve:
Because he wasn’t sold on Hillary?
Golly.
dww44
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero): You may be right
but perhaps we’d better tune into the next Daily Show when Stewart’s guest will be Grover Norquist. Perhaps, by default, the latter’s now the man in charge of GOP strategy. Maybe he’s got a new pledge up his sleeve.
Raven
@RD: He had John O’ Niell and Jerome Corsi on constantly during the Kerry-Bush campaign and got that thrill up his leg.
Another Halocene Human
@Calouste: Majority Republican, I don’t see that happening yet. Quite frankly, GOPROUD was even more of a joke this year than last. However, there are a number of gay white wealthy male “libertarians”. If the Republicans ever dig their head out of their *rse, who knows?
Dan Savage really seems to me like a Republican-in-waiting. He’s a Democrat because he still bears a grudge from the gay-baiting 90’s.
But Dan was out. The guys who were in the closet in the 90’s should be easy pickings for Republicans. Unlike heterosexual men in LTRs, they don’t necessarily have to give a shit about women’s reproductive health, or children’s welfare, or any minority’s issues but their own. (This is not to disparage all the wonderful feminist gay men out there!!!)
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@dww44:
LOL, could be, now that Rush is on the skids.
Raven
@Steve: Did you catch him the night he had his wife on while he was pimping his JFK book? She was great, “yea, JFK was banging everything in site (paraphrase)”. His reply was that the country gave JFK slack because he was a war hero.
jl
Article on what proportion of white vote Obama needs to win 2012 election.
From look of map, the GOP would need a race dog whistle strategy that worked mostly outside the south. They would have push mass quantities of white voters over the line in places like CA, NY, IL.
If I were a ruthless GOP tactician, it might occur to me that they have been using a lot of race ‘scary other’ stuff ever since Obama has been elected. And maybe it has worked where it will work, and what will it take for it to work in other places? Do the race bait a little more blatantly? That might backfire in many states.
They have to use race baiting and scaring to swing a quarter to third of white voters in places like CA and NY? Not sure that will work. But at this point they are desperate, and past experience indicates that they will say anything to win.
I hope Zandar’s prediction is not true, but I won’t bet no money on my hope.
Where Obama’s White Vote Matters Less in 2012
How minorities could affect the race for president
http://www.nationaljournal.com/where-obama-s-white-vote-matters-less-in-2012-20110331
RD
@Shawn in ShowMe:
He also talks about conservatives with a sense of what’s been lost.
Not all of us are aging hippies.
jl
@RD:
I watched with my own damn eyes a clip a while back of Matthews earnestly asking some Congressman how he emotionally handled having to debate a woman.
The man Congresscritter kind of fumbled around, his brain overwhelmed with his ‘WTF did Mathews just say?’ neurons firing, and finally figured out attempt to explain things to Matthews.
So, I conclude Matthews is either a misogynist or has a lot of male security ‘issues’ with a lot of miscellaneous activities of daily life.
Raven
@jl: He’s a fucking idiot.
RD
@jl:
Fine, that’s your take.
I just think he’s a politics geek who is mostly harmless and one that I enjoy watching.
Shawn in ShowMe
@RD:
The Jack Kemp conservative block that Matthews longs for hasn’t existed for decades. It’s like expecting an R&B renaissance if Motown could just sign the right artists. I don’t care if Chris’s heart is in the right place. At some point you’ve got to stop enabling the enemy.
jl
@jl: I guess CA and NY are bad examples, since they are going 60 to 70 percent popular vote for Obama, unless something very unexpected happens. So, I guess the real places their win with white male bigot (WWWMB) stratgy needs to work is CO, and NC and IA. So, can race baiting get a larger proportion of whites to vote GOP in those places?
Maybe in a NC of several decades ago. but now? And then less chance in places like OR and IA, I think.
And if minorities support Obama to same extent (and are allowed to vote, that is key given recent unAmerican GOP activities on voter suppression) they would need blow outs in white dominate swing states.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess. But, how to make the ol’ dog whistle work double hard, without being so blatant it turns people off.
And mass quantities of voters have been primed by the GOP primary to be turned off by anything GOP.
jl
@RD: Matthews does good work often, but sometimes he is so out of it, I have to wonder if he is all there (but then I know a lot of people in the US media, like Mornin’ Joe, and others worse, are not all there).
Matthews questioning some one on how they dealt with debating a woman really took be by surprise, though. I thought Matthews was joking at first.
Brachiator
How, exactly, is this supposed to happen? People are somehow going to say, oh, my clutching pearls, this is all so ugly. I guess I will just stay home?
Meanwhile, the Breitbart remnants are predictably escalating the hate and fear factor, showing how Obama’s embrace of law professor Derrick Bell means that he secretly plans to install death panels to kill all white people if he is re-elected.
This kind of shit will not make me want to stay home. I will make sure to show up at the polls early.
RD
@Shawn in ShowMe:
Maybe not, but it won’t help to bitch slap him for even suggesting it.
Raven
@RD: Won’t hurt either, maybe someone could slap some sense into his phony “Philly Blue Collar” ass and I volunteer.
Raven
Hey, let’s combine the Tweety and Tapper threads and have a real hoe down!
The Other Chuck
@JR:
After the convention? Yes, like the good little authoritarians they are, they will fall in line like they always do. They’ve hit the snooze on the Countdown To Loving Mitt Clock, but it’ll ring.
hitchhiker
@RD:
My bad, I thought you were asking a question.
Sorry to interrupt your soliloquy; carry on.
RD
@hitchhiker:
No, thank you for answering the real question:
Where have the firebaggers been?
Apparently jerking off over their latest Hillary love object on the Alter of Purity.
Cacti
Speaking of 70%, it’s looking like that might be the floor for Obama with the Hispanic vote.
The latest Faux News poll shows the POTUS up 70-14 against any of the 3 GOP candidates.
nellcote
Medicare cracks down on power wheelchair claim fraud
Teabaggers have a sad.
CarolDuhart2
At what point are we quickly approaching that only a firebrand could rally enough whites on the Republican side to win even against a lackluster minority turnout?
If it takes 70 percent of white males to win now, what about 2016 when there will be fewer 50+ white males in the voting pool, and both sides will be energized even more than today?
pseudonymous in nc
@JR:
Given that the people voting for Rmoney are in a) Mormonia; b) parts of the country that will go to Obama in November, I still don’t see the usual Eating Of The Shit Sandwich by the base. Having Mittens y’alling and eating grits in Mississippi isn’t going to change that.
Joseph Nobles
How will they get 70%+ of white males to vote like that? These men, they do want to get laid some time in the next 20 years?
samara morgan
i just dont think its possible at this point. Is 70% because single white females are deserting the GOP because of Rushgate? Before Rushgate the GOP candidate needed 65% of the white vote to beat Obama………70% of the white male vote is likely lowball.
By 2020 the RAE (rising american electorate) will comprise 53% of the electorate, and the GOP will never win another election.
samara morgan
and…the Wingularity is near.
i bin sayin’ that for a while.
Another Halocene Human
@RD: Wow, project much? Just for the sake of my own sanity, mind you, how do you figure a statist like Hilary Clinton becoming the cult-object of firebaggers? Please don’t tell me you’re so dumb as to conflate left-libertarians (public option or I throw a tantrum!) with totalitarians. I do realize that is popular in some circles.
Another Halocene Human
@Cacti:
Wow, talk about shitting the bed.
RD
@Another Halocene Human:
Gosh, I don’t know.
Must have had something to do with the primaries.