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Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Daily Kos: "The rebranding of the Republican Party is to a large degree the renaming of intolerance."

Daily Kos: "The rebranding of the Republican Party is to a large degree the renaming of intolerance.":


"The rebranding of the Republican Party is to a large degree the renaming of intolerance."

That is the final line of a brilliant column by Charles M. Blow that I discuss in Charles M. Blow gets it right, which because of that very unsexy title is apparently not drawing eyeballs.
This diary points at that.
That diary explores the Blow column and then points you at it.
The KEY thing is, read his column.
PEACE



Charles M. Blow gets it right

in a column titled Terms of Art he starts with this biting paragraph:
Many on the political right simply can’t get this diversity thing right — and I deeply doubt that they want to. Theirs is a bone-deep contempt for otherness, a congenital belief in the superiority-inferiority binary, a circle-the-wagons, zero-sum view of progress, prosperity and power.
That one paragraph is so richbone-deep contempt for otherness by itself is worthy -  think of the hashtagging we could do with that!
the zero-sum view of progress, prosperity and power helps us understand why they react so viscerally to any kind of social program to help the less well-off: they consider it as a theft from themselves.
This column has so much more.
I will let you read what he has to say about the now infamous Mr. Richwine, whose bloviations for Heritage Foundation on immigration are the proximate occasion for this particular column.
Blow notes of one phrase that has become infamous
Skill-based. Clever. Or Machiavellian.
He places this in proper context with Romney's "47%,"  John Sununu's attempts to portray Obama as not really American, Paul Ryan blaming the vote in "urban areas" for the Republican 2012 presidential fail, and additional examples from Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, even going back to Reagan and welfare queens, and the first Bush and Atwater using Willie Horton, before writing
But I think you get the picture.The right is constantly invoking class and race as cudgels in our political discussions; they just hide the hand that swings the club.
Ouch!  In more ways than one.There is only one sentence left, and this is an absolute gem:
The rebranding of the Republican Party is to a large degree the renaming of intolerance.
Read the column.Pass it on.
And remember:  The rebranding of the Republican Party is to a large degree the renaming of intolerance.