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Chan Lowe: Republican cultural politics
Maybe the electorate is beginning to tire of the relentless talk
about jobs, the economy and the deficit. If we Americans are known for
anything, it’s the brevity of our national attention span.
Lately, we’ve been hearing the siren call (some call it “dog
whistle”) of some old, familiar themes—mostly enunciated by Republican
presidential hopefuls seeking to burnish their appeal with notoriously
culturally conservative Iowa caucus-goers.
There’s been a resurgence of the hot-button social issues in
congress, too, in the form of an attempt to cut Planned Parenthood’s
budget, and the decision by the house to go ahead and defend the Defense
of Marriage Act in court (since that amoral faux-Christian foreigner in
the White House won’t do it).
I think it was the TV talking head
Howard Fineman who coined the term “crazy tax” to signify the rhetorical
tribute all GOP presidential candidates will have to pay to their base to have any chance of winning the primaries. The problem is that
primary voters comprise only a motivated sliver of the full
party⎯motivated, as in ideologically. Whoever bends over the farthest to
present the most favorable image to them will have the heaviest lift
when it comes to convincing moderates and other reasonable people that
he or she can be trusted to keep an even keel if given the helm of the
ship of state.
All Democratic strategists have to do is to start running that lucky
winner’s own speech excerpts and primary ads back at him (or her) during
the general election campaign, and further editorializing will be
unnecessary. Gone are the days when a candidate can deny that he ever
made a certain statement, or that it was taken out of context. Somebody
always has a video camera or a cell phone running. Just ask President
George “Macaca” Allen.