First Thread: Before Trump

So my Ph D treaties on Twitter, about how Trump split up the GOP. We start with history of course. And we go to the political era before Trump. To the origins.

No. Not Sarah Palin.

No. Not Newt Gingrich. The origins:

George Wallace, the last racist

So reality check to my younger Tweeps, some who do not know this. Up to the 1960s, it was the DEMOCRATIC party that was the racist party and the Republicans stood for equal rights. Yes that is true.

The South had 'Dixie-crats' who were KKK Nazis, Democrats who were openly racist
The last Racist to openly run for President to win some (Southern) states - was former Democrat - turned Independent, George Wallace.

Democrats threw the racists out of their party and embraced the minorities, with a passion. Today it seems impossible to imagine DEMs as racists
George Wallace ran as an Independent (the American Independent Party, does that sound MAGA to you?)

When George Wallace's runs ended, the racists had no party to call their own. They infiltrated the Republican party who tolerated them. THAT WAS A MISTAKE
We need to understand the roots to Maganutters. George Wallace & Dixie-Crat / American Independent Party racists were mostly from the South. Land owners, whites. Gun-lovers. Fake Christians (churches were strongly segregated, so WHITE Christians in South easily racists)
The white racists had often direct lineage back to slave-owners. And broad support of KKK. Denying blacks and other minorities the right to vote. Lynch mobs etc.

This was George Wallace's voter base. Since Wallace, no politician DARED to appeal to the racists, until Trump
I do not mean all gun-lovers are racists
I do not mean all Southern Whites are racists
I do not mean all white Christians are racists
I do not mean all land-owners are racists.

BUT racists tend to be most of those things. They are sick slice of the population. GOP tolerated them
This racist wing would not vote for Obama, a black man. Note there ARE still rcists among Democrats too (only very few).

When RACISTS heard Trump question Obama's nationality (= Kenyan, the birtherism) they found their maga god
Most Republicans are not racist. The party's HISTORY was AGAINST slavery.

After Democrats threw racists out, the GOP accepted them in. This was a horrible mistake. The GOP tolerated the racists for decades, eroding their party
Most MAGANUTTERS are NOT racist

Let me repeat that

Most maganutters are NOT racist

But nearly all American racists are hard core Trump supporters. The deepest core, most loyal Trumpists among maganutters - are racists.

The GOP needs to deal with this now

More from Tomi Ahonen, Croupier at Pardon Roulette

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All the challenges to Leader Pelosi are coming from her right, in an apparent effort to make the party even more conservative and bent toward corporate interests.

Hard pass. So long as Leader Pelosi remains the most progressive candidate for Speaker, she can count on my support.


I agree that our party should, and must, evolve our leadership.

But changed leadership should reflect an actual, evolved mission; namely, an increased commitment to the middle + working class electorate that put us here.

Otherwise it’s a just new figure with the same problems.

I hope that we can move swiftly to conclude this discussion about party positions, so that we can spend more time discussing party priorities: voting rights, healthcare, wages, climate change, housing, cannabis legalization, good jobs, etc.
I told you they’d bring this up


I was wondering why that tweet had so many stupid replies. And now I see


Seriously, this was “the night before.” If you’re at the march where they’re changing “Jews will not replace us” and “Blood and soil,” you’re not a “very fine person.” Full stop.


There are 3 important moments in that transcript.

1.) When someone asked Trump about a statement *he had already made* about there being blame on “both sides,” he said the “fine people” line.


2. Trump does clarify! “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists — because they should be condemned totally “

Okay!

Then adds that there were “many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists.”
This idea - that elections should translate into policy - is not wrong at all. But political science can help explain why it's not working this way. There are three main explanations: 1. mandates are constructed, not automatic, 2. party asymmetry, 3. partisan conpetition 1/


First, party/policy mandates from elections are far from self-executing in our system. Work on mandates from Dahl to Ellis and Kirk on the history of the mandate to mine on its role in post-Nixon politics, to Peterson Grossback and Stimson all emphasize that this link is... 2/

Created deliberately and isn't always persuasive. Others have to convinced that the election meant a particular thing for it to work in a legislative context. I theorized in the immediate period of after the 2020 election that this was part of why Repubs signed on to ...3/

Trump's demonstrably false fraud nonsense - it derailed an emerging mandate news cycle. Winners of elections get what they get - institutional control - but can't expect much beyond that unless the perception of an election mandate takes hold. And it didn't. 4/

Let's turn to the legislation element of this. There's just an asymmetry in terms of passing a relief bill. Republicans are presumably less motivated to get some kind of deal passed. Democrats are more likely to want to do *something.* 5/

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