Nativism

Fareed Zakaria CNN Special From May 2021 Updated: “A Radical Rebellion: The Transformation Of The GOP”

The Welfare State–Secularism—changing racial situation.

Fareed Zakaria on a CNN Special today, updated from May 2021, entitled “A Radical Rebellion: The Transformation of the GOP”, presented an analysis of the disaster that the Republican Party has become:

in an era of conservatism attacking the concept of the Franklin D. Roosevelt New Deal and the Lyndon B. Johnson Great Society;

allowing Right Wing evangelical Christianity and theocracy to take over the party in the name of God;

and working against the reality that the white majority face a future in America of minority racial groups together being a majority of the population in about 2040-2045.

He covers from the John Birch Society in the 1950s;
to William F. Buckley, Jr and the National Review;
to Barry Goldwater and the conservative takeover in 1964, leading to massive victory of Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society;
to Richard Nixon and the “Southern Strategy”in 1968;
to Jerry Falwell and the “Christian Coalition” and the “Moral Majority” in the late 1970s and early 1980s;
to Ronald Reagan and the “Reagan Coalition” in the 1980s;
to Pat Buchanan’s challenge of George H W Bush in 1992;
to Newt Gingrich and the “Republican Revolution” of 1994 and after;
to the promotion of right wing propaganda and lies by Fox News Channel starting in 1996;
to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in the 2000s;
to the Tea Party Movement rise under Barack Obama’s Presidency;
to the rise of Donald Trump in 2015-2016;
to the “Big Lie” about the Presidential Election of 2020;
to the January 6, 2021 US Capitol Insurrection;
to the present extremism in the Congressional and State Republican parties in 2021;
to the constant threat to women’s rights, including abortion;
to the right wing rejection of Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, John McCain, and Mitt Romney as not conservative enough;
and the growing racism, nativism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, misogyny, and homophobia that have become alarming realities for the future of American politics!

Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson “A Clear And Present Danger” To Truth And American Democracy!

Fox News Channel has been an outlier since its creation by Rupert Murdoch in 1996.

It has the biggest audience of any cable news channel, but it has spewed forth right wing extremist propaganda for the past 25 years, including their persistent promotion of lies, mistruths, racism, nativism, misogyny and Islamophobia!

Its talk show hosts in the evenings–Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and most significantly, Tucker Carlson–are demagogues who distort and divide for personal and company profit!

Tucker Carlson presents a “clear and present danger” to truth and American democracy, and his decision to create a documentary that denies the reality of what happened on January 6, 2021 is beyond the pale!

All of us who watched on television the Insurrection as it occurred, and all of the tens of thousands of hours of video that shows the destruction and assault on the US Capitol, are a permanent record of what was going on, and yet Tucker Carlson is claiming the events of that horrific day are a “false flag”.

This is propaganda worthy of Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and the authoritarian dictatorships spreading around the world in the attack on democracy that is now enveloping not just elsewhere but here!

Donald Trump is the most dangerous and demagogic political leader bar none—including such as Huey Long, Joseph McCarthy, George Wallace—in the past century!

The thought that any honorable media source would peddle such totalitarian propaganda is shocking, and Tucker Carlson is committing the ultimate felony of propaganda promoted by Joseph Goebbels in Nazi Germany, the spreading of lies that led to the massive loss of life in the Holocaust!

Voting Rights Extension 2006: 98-0 In Senate! Voting Rights Extension 2021–Rejected By Republicans!

Today is the 10th Anniversary of the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington DC.

It is very clear what Martin Luther King Jr. would say if he was alive today–total anger at what the Republican Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln, has done–to work to destroy the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 under Lyndon B. Johnson, and reaffirmed as recently as 2006, under President George W. Bush, when the US Senate voted 98-0 to renew it, with full backing of the Republican President and his party unanimously.

But now, in the age of Donald Trump and a Republican Party morphing into the old segregationist Southern Democratic Party from Reconstruction times to the 1960s, we are stunned to see not one Republican Senator—not even Mitt Romney, nor Ben Sasse, nor Lisa Murkowski, nor Susan Collins—willing to vote to overcome the filibuster tactic. This vote was just to consider and discuss and debate a Voting Rights Act to restore the damage done by the US Supreme Court in 2013 in Shelby County V Holder, and by many Southern and Western states legislatures since then, to restrict the right to vote, the bedrock of a democracy!

The Republican Party has lost its credibility completely as a serious alternative conservative party, and now is just a bunch of power seeking, phony so called “religious’ people, who are out to promote white supremacy, nativism and misogyny! They are out to promote election subversion and voter suppression and deny the right to vote to millions of Americans!

The party will not recover long term if it does not abandon Donald Trump now, and there is no sign of that occurring!

Fox News Channel: 25 Years Of Promoting Hatred, Bigotry, Lies, Fear, And Evil!

Fox News Channel, the purveyor of hatred, bigotry, lies, fear, and evil, is now celebrating its 25th anniversary, being created in 1996.

It has poisoned the media environment, and allowed demagogues to prosper, including, most notably, Donald Trump.

Their evening news anchors, past and present, have done great harm to the concept of truth and the need for cooperation and unity to deal with the problems the nation has faced in the past quarter century.

Such horrendous individuals, including Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Judge Jeanine Pirro, along with many others past and present, have misled Americans by promoting the “Big Lie” that Donald Trump won the Presidential Election of 2020; promoted white supremacy, racism and nativism; encouraged Americans to resist COVID 19 vaccinations and mask mandates; and so much else!

But the evil and lies are not just about the present, but undermining American democracy, the Constitution, and the rule of law in all of the events and controversies since the late 1990s, including the contentious Presidential Election of 2000; the September 11 attacks and the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars; the Barack Obama years; and the Donald Trump Presidency.

The War On Knowledge, Facts, Truth, Particularly On History And Science!

In 2021, America sadly lives in a time of a war on knowledge, facts, and truth!

This is particularly true on the subjects of history and science!

We are being told that the sad and troubling moments of American history should not be taught to our younger generation, and that the myth of perfectibility and positive moments should be taught instead, rather than facing the widespread reality of racism, sexism, nativism, and the promotion of evil leaders over time who have undermined American democracy!

We are also being told that science is not to be respected or believed, and that scientists and doctors are conspiring against the health of the American people in regards to the COVID 19 Pandemic! This is a dangerous conspiracy theory and will cause the longevity of the pandemic!

And former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has proposed that parents decide what the teachers of their children are to teach, to control the curriculum, a shocking and outrageous assertion! A vast majority of parents, sorry to say, are ignorant, lacking in appropriate educational credentials, and even if so called “educated”, it is not their place to decide the curriculum and promote mind control!

The Republican Party Has Become A Full Blown Fascist Party, Warring On Women, Minorities, Immigrants, Labor, The Environment, And More!

Sad to say, but it is now clear that the Republican Party in Congress and in many states has become a full blown Fascist Party, warring on women, minorities, immigrants, labor, the environment, and all decent, humane tendencies. They appeal to mob rule and violence!

Of course, there are exceptions, so those Republicans could best be defined as RINOs (Republicans In Name Only), the name given to them by the Fascist oriented Republican office holders.

The Republican Party broadly has refused to recognize and respect women’s rights, which includes the right to control their own bodies and reproduction choices. They claim they are Pro Life when they are unconcerned about the quality of life of anyone other than the elite wealthy upper class! And once a fetus is born, these Fascist Republicans have no concern about their quality of life, including their health care, education, and housing!

The Republicans appeal to struggling whites by promoting the Christian religion, when they totally distort the whole meaning of the teachings of Jesus!

They appeal to the racist beliefs of whites who want to blame African Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and also Jewish Americans for the lack of progress of so many. Particularly, rural whites are manipulated by Republicans so they can keep their power by gerrymandering and distorting the Electoral College, even when they cannot win national popular elections!

The idea that America is an immigrant nation has been destroyed by Republicans who are too willing to blame new immigrant groups, as earlier groups were blamed for the shortcomings in society. These were caused by greedy capitalists and corrupt politicians, who want power, and will do anything venal to gain it and keep it, while ignoring the many issues of degradation and struggle for survival and advancement in American society.

And in the name of greedy American capitalism, Republicans refuse to deal with climate change and global warming, and have no concern about the effect on the environment, as along as they can enrich themselves, and ignore the future, and reject science and facts!

So many of the Republican officeholders are wretched excuses for human beings, and have not a bit of empathy, compassion, decency, or humanity, and promote hate, division, and hide the crimes that have occurred under Donald Trump, and on January 6, 2021!

They will do anything to cover their sins and crimes, and they must be defeated in 2022 and 2024 to preserve the American republic and the concept of democracy, not only for Americans, but as a model for the world in the future!

Evil Fox News Channel Hosts Tucker Carlson And Laura Ingraham Promote Nativism Against Afghan Refugees!

Evil Fox News Channel Talk Show hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham are spreading fears about the move to save Afghan interpreters and other Afghans who worked for the United States during the Afghanistan War, and now face retribution from the Taliban monsters who have gained control of Afghanistan again.

They feel no loyalty to those who sacrificed their safety to help the US military, and they feel no compassion for the women and girls who face horrifying treatment from Taliban soldiers and the government, who want to destroy all the gains women have made in the past 20 years.

These two monsters have no compassion, no empathy, no sense of loyalty to those who made a difference to American soldiers for the past generation.

The concept that such despicable, disgraceful hatemongers are allowed access to influence nativism, racism, and Islamophobia, and be so well paid as they promote hate and division, is an example of freedom of speech gone amuck!

200 Days Since Donald Trump Left Office, And Nine Months Since Joe Biden Declared President-Elect, And The Insurrection Continues!

Today marks 200 days since Donald Trump left office, and the Insurrection continues, as Republicans plot to hide the truth of January 6, 2021, and to do everything they can to fix future elections so that they can win, despite promoting policies and ideas that undermine American democracy!

Today also marks nine months since Joe Biden was declared the winner of the Presidential Election of 2020!

The Republican Party is also promoting anti science by ignoring the COVID 19 Pandemic and its growing hospitalization and death rate, even though they claim to be the party of Pro Life, which is proof of their hypocrisy!

Never have we had so many crazy, delusional, dangerous members of Congress, who spout forth conspiracy theories, and advocate racism, white supremacy, nativism, and xenophobia, while having no regard for the sufferings of millions of Americans who are in danger of being evicted from their homes, and their struggles to keep up with their student loan repayments.

Thank goodness for the good heart, compassion, and empathy of President Biden, who has extended the rent moratorium and student loan moratorium, while Republicans have no concern about these matters.

The Disaster Of The US Senate

This author, scholar, and blogger has long studied and been fascinated by the institution of the US Senate, only second to the office of the American Presidency.

There have been many great US Senators, out of the nearly 2,000 who have served in that body.

But there have also been many disgraceful, disastrous US Senators, who have undermined the reputation of that institution, and too often, have stood in the way of progress and democracy.

This reality has become much more prevalent in recent years, as one party, the Republicans, have set out to promote only the interests of the wealthy and corporations, while utilizing the race card, to keep working class and lower middle class whites loyal to a party which promotes racism, nativism, misogyny, and promotion of Christian theology!

And as the population of the nation continues to grow, the undemocratic nature of the US Senate becomes ever more tragic and unrelenting.

The facts are that 15 states, with 38 million people, elect 30 Republican Senators dedicated to negativism and stalemate, while California, with 40 million residents, elects two Democratic Senators.

With the population trends of the nation moving forward, by two decades from now, 2040, close to 70 percent of the nation will be represented by 30 Senators, while the remaining Americans, disproportionately whiter, older, and more rural, will have 70 US Senators!

This reality will, long term, harm any possibility of major reforms and change, such as represented by the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson!

The Republican Party Base Is Anti Immigrant, But They Are Also Anti Science And Anti Historical Fact!

The Republican Party base is anti immigrant (nativist), and has prevented immigration reform, despite the efforts over the years of Republicans, such as John McCain and George W. Bush to deal with the issue, alongside Democrats, including Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and a multitude of others.

It is also anti Science, allowing right wing evangelical Christians to utilize mind control, and to attack evolution a century after the Scopes Trial, and to be anti vaccine and anti mask advocates, and also anti climate change, along with attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci.

And the Republican Party base is also anti history, wanting to promote a “white” history, without discussion of the horrendous treatment and abuse of African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic-Latino Americans, and Asian Americans over the long run of American history.

The situation for teachers of the Social Sciences and American history, and also of American literature teachers who assign fiction that depicts and informs us of horrible mistreatment and racial language, is in crisis, as many teachers will lose their positions as state governments in many of the states dictate how their curriculums are to be controlled and presented.

Lawsuits are beginning by teachers’ unions and other groups to stop censorship of the truth, but the Republican Party base promoting “Know Nothingism” on immigration, science and history are an attack on academic freedom that must be fought through all legal means!