Divide Et Impera
Well, now we know what Karl Rove has decided will be this election year's wedge issue.
Gay marriage is so 2004. Immigration is fresh. It's hip. It's divisive.
Illegal or not, it doesn't matter. Immigration has a ton of little attendant facets to exploit. English as a national language, cutting essential services to those without papers, ending automatic citizenship for the native-born--they're all ripe for the picking.
Millions of people around the country marched for the rights of immigrants, and get this...they were on TV when they did it. There's footage for your commercials right there. Don't they make a perfect other for a campaign in any midwestern state?
I talked with a conservative Mormon in Utah once who told me that Republicans will always win when it comes to social issues. This is because while Democrats preach social morality, Republicans preach personal morality. When Democrats claim that Republicans lack compassion, he said, people know they're wrong. Voters know that Republicans don't hate poor people or want the Grandma eating dog food. They know that issues of social morality are only differences of approach between the two parties.
On the other hand, issues of personal morality--like homosexuality and pornography--these are black and white, up and down issues. You don't have to think, you don't have to have compassion. All you have to have is a gut feeling and enough anger to pull a lever on election day.
What Karl Rove does so well is turn every issue into an issue of personal morality. Then he gets to set the terms. Right and wrong. Which side are you on, boy?
They've done it with national security, they've done it with gay marriage, they're doing it with immigration. The process actually REQUIRES constant discord. That's why any time you see one of Rove's candidates talk about uniting America, you automatically know they're being disingenuous.
One last thing. Both parties like to claim that they speak to our hopes, but their opponents speak to our fears. I'm a glass is half-full kind of guy--I think they BOTH speak to our fears. But Democrats speak to our fears of war and of poverty, of racism and ignorance. Republicans speak to our fears of our fellow human beings. They shouldn't be rewarded for it.
Gay marriage is so 2004. Immigration is fresh. It's hip. It's divisive.
Illegal or not, it doesn't matter. Immigration has a ton of little attendant facets to exploit. English as a national language, cutting essential services to those without papers, ending automatic citizenship for the native-born--they're all ripe for the picking.
Millions of people around the country marched for the rights of immigrants, and get this...they were on TV when they did it. There's footage for your commercials right there. Don't they make a perfect other for a campaign in any midwestern state?
I talked with a conservative Mormon in Utah once who told me that Republicans will always win when it comes to social issues. This is because while Democrats preach social morality, Republicans preach personal morality. When Democrats claim that Republicans lack compassion, he said, people know they're wrong. Voters know that Republicans don't hate poor people or want the Grandma eating dog food. They know that issues of social morality are only differences of approach between the two parties.
On the other hand, issues of personal morality--like homosexuality and pornography--these are black and white, up and down issues. You don't have to think, you don't have to have compassion. All you have to have is a gut feeling and enough anger to pull a lever on election day.
What Karl Rove does so well is turn every issue into an issue of personal morality. Then he gets to set the terms. Right and wrong. Which side are you on, boy?
They've done it with national security, they've done it with gay marriage, they're doing it with immigration. The process actually REQUIRES constant discord. That's why any time you see one of Rove's candidates talk about uniting America, you automatically know they're being disingenuous.
One last thing. Both parties like to claim that they speak to our hopes, but their opponents speak to our fears. I'm a glass is half-full kind of guy--I think they BOTH speak to our fears. But Democrats speak to our fears of war and of poverty, of racism and ignorance. Republicans speak to our fears of our fellow human beings. They shouldn't be rewarded for it.
posted by Matthew at 3:27 AM
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