Political Incivility

In my last letter I referred to the “speech” Romney made in Boca Raton. But the “forty seven percent” business took place later in his answer to a question from a member of a $50,000 a plate audience. The questions themselves give an even clearer picture of the core thinking of these people. Certainly Democrats say things behind closed doors that would be damaging if they were made public. But there is a proportional difference in degree, forty seven to one as a rough estimate. We know that James Carter III, grandson of the former president, procured the recording. But the original source is unknown at this writing. It’s a reasonable guess that it might be one of that forty seven percent in question who likely makes less annually than the price of the dinner.

These words are prima facie evidence of “class warfare” of which Republicans commonly accuse Democrats. As I’ve mentioned, using a different metaphor, any warfare is like a tango, it takes two. Class warfare is nothing new. It goes back at least as far as recorded history.

The language spoken by Romney in presumed privacy was pure Wall Street which doesn’t translate all that well. The other Republicans, many of whom carry the Tea Party banner, are mostly Archie Bunker types and Evangelicals. They are not as circumspect and tend to let it all hang out. An illuminating moment was at a party presidential debate when the audience broke into wild applause at the mention of Rick Perry’s Texas having the nation’s highest death penalty rate. I’m against the death penalty for my own reasons, but I know people who disagree with me who can make an arguable case, who would never demean themselves this manner.

Political incivility is hardly new to this country. There have been Congressional fist fights, canings and I believe a shooting or two. But the differences there were more personal than ideological. Demonizing entire classes of people is a relatively new development.

As I see it this incivility was started by Ronald Reagan. Nixon was more a megalomaniac than an ideologue.  He signed measures into law that are blasphemous by today’s right wing standards. Gerald Ford quietly vetoed egalitarian legislation from a Democratic Congress. The “Great Communicator” was able to stigmatize an entire race of Americans with fairy tales about a “welfare queen in her Cadillac” cashing benefits acquired under several aliases and a “strapping young buck” buying T bone steaks with food stamps.

This line of “reasoning” was picked up by the whole party. It was at the heart of the 1994 “Republican Revolution” led by Newt Gingrich. It was undoubtedly enough to push W over the top in his two elections and was used by the Tea Party to great effect in 2010. But the African American population in the last census was 12.6%, well short of the 47% Romney has taken on. The Republican Party’s eyes may be too big for its stomach.