How did we get here with the minority – not the Blacks, Hispanics/Latinx, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders et al., -- but with the Republican Party, along with White Christians and Evangelical White Protestants -- having come to rule the roost?
Yes, we are going to get to the hub of this power arrangement, back to …
How did we get here with the minority – not the Blacks, Hispanics/Latinx, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders et al., -- but with the Republican Party, along with White Christians and Evangelical White Protestants -- having come to rule the roost?
Yes, we are going to get to the hub of this power arrangement, back to Ronald Reagan and his circle but first let’s take a brief look at our current political set up.
‘Americans have rarely been as polarized as they are today.’
‘The studies we’ve conducted at Pew Research Center over the past few years illustrate the increasingly stark disagreement between Democrats and Republicans on the economy, racial justice, climate change, law enforcement, international engagement and a long list of other issues. The 2020 presidential election further highlighted these deep-seated divides. Supporters of Biden and Donald Trump believe the differences between them are about more than just politics and policies. A month before the election, roughly eight-in-ten registered voters in both camps said their differences with the other side were about core American values, and roughly nine-in-ten – again in both camps – worried that a victory by the other would lead to “lasting harm” to the United States.
‘…the 2020 pandemic has revealed how pervasive the divide in American politics is relative to other nations.’
‘Much of this American exceptionalism preceded the coronavirus: In a Pew Research Center study conducted before the pandemic, Americans were more ideologically divided than any of the 19 other publics surveyed…’
‘Why is America cleaved in this way? Once again, looking across other nations gives us some indication. The polarizing pressures of partisan media, social media, and even deeply rooted cultural, historical, and regional divides are hardly unique to America. By comparison, America’s relatively rigid, two-party electoral system stands apart by collapsing a wide range of legitimate social and political debates into a singular battle line that can make our differences appear even larger than they may actually be. And when the balance of support for these political parties is close enough for either to gain near-term electoral advantage – as it has in the U.S. for more than a quarter century – the competition becomes cutthroat and politics begins to feel zero-sum, where one side’s gain is inherently the other’s loss. Finding common cause – even to fight a common enemy in the public health and economic threat posed by the coronavirus – has eluded us.’
‘Over time, these battles result in nearly all societal tensions becoming consolidated into two competing camps. As Ezra Klein and other writers have noted, divisions between the two parties have intensified over time as various types of identities have become “stacked” on top of people’s partisan identities. Race, religion, and ideology now align with partisan identity in ways that they often didn’t in eras when the two parties were relatively heterogenous coalitions.’
'In their study of polarization across nations, Thomas Carothers and Andrew O’Donohue argue that polarization runs particularly deep in the U.S. in part because American polarization is “especially multifaceted.” According to Carothers and O’Donohue, a “powerful alignment of ideology, race, and religion renders America’s divisions unusually encompassing and profound. It is hard to find another example of polarization in the world,” they write, “that fuses all three major types of identity divisions in a similar way.” (PewResearchCenter) See link below.
Now, back to the future with President Ronald Reagan.
‘GOP leaders and the conservative media ecosystem have spent the last few weeks focused on inflaming the culture wars. They’ve railed against the decision to stop publishing six Dr. Seuss books, falsely claiming that the childhood classics have fallen victim to liberal cancel culture, and complained about changes to the Potato Head line of toys.’
‘Simultaneously, Republican state lawmakers have continued waging a war on democracy, passing new laws that would eliminate vote-by-mail and early voting programs that were popular with Democrats in 2020, especially among minority communities. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, Republican lawmakers have introduced more than 165 bills in 33 states to limit ballot access.’
‘On the surface, these topics seem disconnected, but they share a crucial commonality that shapes today’s Republican Party — one that dates back to the 1984 Republican National Convention held in Dallas. It was there that Republicans cemented an alliance with evangelical White Protestants, in the process creating a demographic and generational time bomb that is now exploding in their face.
‘White Protestant evangelicals had voted for Jimmy Carter in 1976 — the first “born again” president — helping him narrowly capture the White House. But disillusioned over his handling of abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment and the tax exemptions for White religious schools, they had switched their allegiance to Ronald Reagan in 1980.’
‘Reagan’s first-term record was a mixed bag, as far as cultural conservatives were concerned. Even so, four years into his presidency, Reagan saw an opportunity to use religion to forge a political realignment in the South. Addressing a crowd of 10,000 religious leaders at an “Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast” during the 1984 Republican Convention, the president delivered a rousing speech. Reagan willfully blurred the line between church and state. “Religion needs defenders against those who care only for the interests of the state. The truth is, politics and morality are inseparable — and as morality’s foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related.” He concluded: “If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.’
‘Not surprisingly, the Republican platform that year reflected the agenda of White evangelicals. It called for a constitutional ban on abortion with no exceptions and the appointment of federal judges who opposed abortion. It supported voluntary school prayer, ignored the Equal Rights Amendment (which Republicans had supported in every platform from 1940 to 1976 with only two exceptions: 1964 and 1968) and rejected equal pay for women. Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority, closed the 1984 Republican convention by triumphantly calling the incumbent ticket “God’s instruments in rebuilding America.”
‘Politically the alliance made sense, at least in the short run. The previous two decades had witnessed an explosion in the number of self-identified evangelical Christians. The number of Americans who identified as “born again” increased from 24 percent in 1963 to nearly 40 percent in 1978. While mainstream church membership dropped between 1965 and 1980, the number of southern Baptists grew from 10.8 million to 13.6 million.’
‘The rise of Christian fundamentalism represented a backlash against the cultural liberalism of the 1960s. In the minds of many evangelicals, the federal government — and the liberals who staffed it — had engineered America’s alleged moral decline. They felt traumatized by a string of perceived offenses: the Supreme Court’s decisions legalizing abortion and banning school prayer, the gay rights and women’s movements challenging traditional gender roles, and the Internal Revenue Service’s decision to remove the tax-exempt status of private Christian schools.’
‘Outraged, these Americans became a major force in politics, leading campaigns against LGBTQ rights, playing a key role in stopping the ERA’s ratification and fighting for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion, offering an upside for the party that could capture their loyalty.’ (WAPO) See link below.
Isn't this back to the future? There is more to learn about this marriage between the Republican party, White Christians and Evangelical White Protestants. This arrangement doesn't get a pass on the forum.
I'm going out on a limb here; our country (said "United" States of America) should be divvied up into more than one country, based upon this current polarization. If a region wants Christian Sharia Law (which seems to be fairly obvious to a casual observer) than limit it to that region. If a region wants equality and freedom, then let them have it. I had an experience with my sister-in-law and her husband driving from their home in Bonn up to Amsterdam. Three countries in three hours. When I drive down to visit them in Medford, OR (a three hour drive from my home in Eugene) we go through four counties.
The problem is that such a "solution" would maroon many good people who do not want or support Christian Sharia Law but who would become controlled by it.
Ally, Your question is most challenging. It has occurred to me but I was not prepared each time to dwell on it for more than a few minutes. We may be forced into it. This is one that I come to slowly. I'm probably not a good person to ask. There are others who have the background and judgement to provide an intelligent answer. You would not contemplate it unless we were at this very dangerous divide. My preference/wish is that this convulsive period can bring us to a not very violent reckoning. That means that our enemies can be sufficiently weakened and the country has the leadership to carry the Union through. As serious and tough as life is here, I'd like the country to be able to evolve into a more accepting, fair and stable system. We are hanging low and breakable.
How did we get here with the minority – not the Blacks, Hispanics/Latinx, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders et al., -- but with the Republican Party, along with White Christians and Evangelical White Protestants -- having come to rule the roost?
Yes, we are going to get to the hub of this power arrangement, back to Ronald Reagan and his circle but first let’s take a brief look at our current political set up.
‘Americans have rarely been as polarized as they are today.’
‘The studies we’ve conducted at Pew Research Center over the past few years illustrate the increasingly stark disagreement between Democrats and Republicans on the economy, racial justice, climate change, law enforcement, international engagement and a long list of other issues. The 2020 presidential election further highlighted these deep-seated divides. Supporters of Biden and Donald Trump believe the differences between them are about more than just politics and policies. A month before the election, roughly eight-in-ten registered voters in both camps said their differences with the other side were about core American values, and roughly nine-in-ten – again in both camps – worried that a victory by the other would lead to “lasting harm” to the United States.
‘…the 2020 pandemic has revealed how pervasive the divide in American politics is relative to other nations.’
‘Much of this American exceptionalism preceded the coronavirus: In a Pew Research Center study conducted before the pandemic, Americans were more ideologically divided than any of the 19 other publics surveyed…’
‘Why is America cleaved in this way? Once again, looking across other nations gives us some indication. The polarizing pressures of partisan media, social media, and even deeply rooted cultural, historical, and regional divides are hardly unique to America. By comparison, America’s relatively rigid, two-party electoral system stands apart by collapsing a wide range of legitimate social and political debates into a singular battle line that can make our differences appear even larger than they may actually be. And when the balance of support for these political parties is close enough for either to gain near-term electoral advantage – as it has in the U.S. for more than a quarter century – the competition becomes cutthroat and politics begins to feel zero-sum, where one side’s gain is inherently the other’s loss. Finding common cause – even to fight a common enemy in the public health and economic threat posed by the coronavirus – has eluded us.’
‘Over time, these battles result in nearly all societal tensions becoming consolidated into two competing camps. As Ezra Klein and other writers have noted, divisions between the two parties have intensified over time as various types of identities have become “stacked” on top of people’s partisan identities. Race, religion, and ideology now align with partisan identity in ways that they often didn’t in eras when the two parties were relatively heterogenous coalitions.’
'In their study of polarization across nations, Thomas Carothers and Andrew O’Donohue argue that polarization runs particularly deep in the U.S. in part because American polarization is “especially multifaceted.” According to Carothers and O’Donohue, a “powerful alignment of ideology, race, and religion renders America’s divisions unusually encompassing and profound. It is hard to find another example of polarization in the world,” they write, “that fuses all three major types of identity divisions in a similar way.” (PewResearchCenter) See link below.
Now, back to the future with President Ronald Reagan.
‘GOP leaders and the conservative media ecosystem have spent the last few weeks focused on inflaming the culture wars. They’ve railed against the decision to stop publishing six Dr. Seuss books, falsely claiming that the childhood classics have fallen victim to liberal cancel culture, and complained about changes to the Potato Head line of toys.’
‘Simultaneously, Republican state lawmakers have continued waging a war on democracy, passing new laws that would eliminate vote-by-mail and early voting programs that were popular with Democrats in 2020, especially among minority communities. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, Republican lawmakers have introduced more than 165 bills in 33 states to limit ballot access.’
‘On the surface, these topics seem disconnected, but they share a crucial commonality that shapes today’s Republican Party — one that dates back to the 1984 Republican National Convention held in Dallas. It was there that Republicans cemented an alliance with evangelical White Protestants, in the process creating a demographic and generational time bomb that is now exploding in their face.
‘White Protestant evangelicals had voted for Jimmy Carter in 1976 — the first “born again” president — helping him narrowly capture the White House. But disillusioned over his handling of abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment and the tax exemptions for White religious schools, they had switched their allegiance to Ronald Reagan in 1980.’
‘Reagan’s first-term record was a mixed bag, as far as cultural conservatives were concerned. Even so, four years into his presidency, Reagan saw an opportunity to use religion to forge a political realignment in the South. Addressing a crowd of 10,000 religious leaders at an “Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast” during the 1984 Republican Convention, the president delivered a rousing speech. Reagan willfully blurred the line between church and state. “Religion needs defenders against those who care only for the interests of the state. The truth is, politics and morality are inseparable — and as morality’s foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related.” He concluded: “If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.’
‘Not surprisingly, the Republican platform that year reflected the agenda of White evangelicals. It called for a constitutional ban on abortion with no exceptions and the appointment of federal judges who opposed abortion. It supported voluntary school prayer, ignored the Equal Rights Amendment (which Republicans had supported in every platform from 1940 to 1976 with only two exceptions: 1964 and 1968) and rejected equal pay for women. Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority, closed the 1984 Republican convention by triumphantly calling the incumbent ticket “God’s instruments in rebuilding America.”
‘Politically the alliance made sense, at least in the short run. The previous two decades had witnessed an explosion in the number of self-identified evangelical Christians. The number of Americans who identified as “born again” increased from 24 percent in 1963 to nearly 40 percent in 1978. While mainstream church membership dropped between 1965 and 1980, the number of southern Baptists grew from 10.8 million to 13.6 million.’
‘The rise of Christian fundamentalism represented a backlash against the cultural liberalism of the 1960s. In the minds of many evangelicals, the federal government — and the liberals who staffed it — had engineered America’s alleged moral decline. They felt traumatized by a string of perceived offenses: the Supreme Court’s decisions legalizing abortion and banning school prayer, the gay rights and women’s movements challenging traditional gender roles, and the Internal Revenue Service’s decision to remove the tax-exempt status of private Christian schools.’
‘Outraged, these Americans became a major force in politics, leading campaigns against LGBTQ rights, playing a key role in stopping the ERA’s ratification and fighting for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion, offering an upside for the party that could capture their loyalty.’ (WAPO) See link below.
Isn't this back to the future? There is more to learn about this marriage between the Republican party, White Christians and Evangelical White Protestants. This arrangement doesn't get a pass on the forum.
://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/13/america-is-exceptional-in-the-nature-of-its-political-divide/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/03/22/reagan-tied-republicans-white-christians-now-party-is-trapped/
I'm going out on a limb here; our country (said "United" States of America) should be divvied up into more than one country, based upon this current polarization. If a region wants Christian Sharia Law (which seems to be fairly obvious to a casual observer) than limit it to that region. If a region wants equality and freedom, then let them have it. I had an experience with my sister-in-law and her husband driving from their home in Bonn up to Amsterdam. Three countries in three hours. When I drive down to visit them in Medford, OR (a three hour drive from my home in Eugene) we go through four counties.
Here's an interesting visual:
https://moverdb.com/us-states-europe-population/
The problem is that such a "solution" would maroon many good people who do not want or support Christian Sharia Law but who would become controlled by it.
Ally, Your question is most challenging. It has occurred to me but I was not prepared each time to dwell on it for more than a few minutes. We may be forced into it. This is one that I come to slowly. I'm probably not a good person to ask. There are others who have the background and judgement to provide an intelligent answer. You would not contemplate it unless we were at this very dangerous divide. My preference/wish is that this convulsive period can bring us to a not very violent reckoning. That means that our enemies can be sufficiently weakened and the country has the leadership to carry the Union through. As serious and tough as life is here, I'd like the country to be able to evolve into a more accepting, fair and stable system. We are hanging low and breakable.