&
THINGS YOU
MAY HAVE MISSED (TYMHM)
YEAR THREE
Published
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OVERVIEW
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 14
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Dec 18, 2012
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 15
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Jan. 02, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 16
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Jan. 08, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 16
EXTRA
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Jan. 11, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 17
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Jan. 15, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 18
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Jan. 22, 2013
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Gbtre OBOF & TYMHM PART 19
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Jan. 29, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 20
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Feb. 05, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 21
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Feb. 14, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 22
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Feb. 20, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 23
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Feb. 27, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 23 SPECIAL
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Mar. 06, 2013
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saOBOF & TYMHM PART 24
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 25
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Mar. 12, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 25-EXTRA
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Mar. 14, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 26
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Mar. 19, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 27
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Mar. 26, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 28
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Apr. 02, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 29
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Apr. 08, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 30
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Apr. 17, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 31
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Apr. 23, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 32
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Apr. 30, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 33
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May 07, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 34
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May 18, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 35
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May 21, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 36
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May 30, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 37
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June 05, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 38
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June 11, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 39
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June 18, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 40
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June 25, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 41
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July
02, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 42
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July
09, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 43
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July
16, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 44
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July
23, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 45
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July
30, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 46
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Aug.
06, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 47
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Aug.
14, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 48
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Aug. 20, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 49
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Aug. 27, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 50
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Sept. 05, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 51
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Sept. 11, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 52
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Sept. 18, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 53
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Sept. 26, 2013
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OBOF & TYMHM PART 54
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Oct. 02, 2013
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IN THIS ISSUE
1. The problem I should have.
2. Where do we go next?
3. Obama's mistake on Social Security.
4. The real reason there is no SS lock box.
5. Majority in the House opposes shutdown.
Let them vote.
6. Destroying chemical weapons in Syria
7. To understand the shutdown, you have to
understand
the GOP base.
8. A study of GOP focus groups.
Seven and
eight are about the same subject.
Seven is a summary article of the
study. It is
worth your time to read. Eight is the released
report of the study and is more
detailed. It is
long, but again, it is well worth your
time.
THE
PROBLEM I SHOULD HAVE.
By Floyd Bowman.
Publisher of "Opinions
Based On Facts."
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Each week, as I start to put a posting
together, I always have either to much material that I want to get out to you
or not enough of importance. This week
is overflowing with material that could make up two or even three
postings.
The problem is, that if I let some of
it go until later it may take a back seat to something else that will be coming
up in the future. That is what I face
today. So, what to do? I have decided to give you the bulk of things
that I feel are important at this time.
I hope you feel that way too. As
a result, this posting is going to be extra, extra long. I will try to make titles such that you can
pick and choose, as you have time.
It is my hope that over the next week
you may be able to take two or three stabs at it, if you can't do it all at one
time. We all have different viewpoints
as to what is important. Based on the
numbers of you who have been reading my postings, I must be giving you material
that you also feel is important.
WHERE
DO WE GO NEXT
Last week I started with the heading,
"HERE WE ARE. WHERE DO WE GO NEXT?
That question is getting larger and
larger. Last week we were talking about
the Government Shutdown, a Continuing Resolution, Debt Ceiling, and default on U. S.
Now, all of a sudden, today, the 8th,
out of the blue, there is talk about adjusting Social Security and Medicare
along with all the above. In just 9 days,
the Treasury will have paid out monies up to the Debt Ceiling. The President has again said he will not
negotiate on the Debt Ceiling or the Continuing Resolution.
There is talk of raising the Debt
Ceiling for just a short time, probably 3 months. There was no more talk today about putting
the Government back to work. If they
can't get that done, it won't matter were the Debt Ceiling is.
Now, if that doesn't set the stage for
the most screwed up operation I have ever known of, I'll eat my hat on the
steps of the Capitol. I can't remember,
without going back and searching, when we last had a full 12 months
budget. You
absolutely, cannot run a business or government like this. It's very costly, as you can't plan ahead and
you have to continually be prepared for another shutdown in three months or so.
There is no question, as near as I can
tell, that there needs some adjustments in the Affordable Care Act, but it
should be handled on another day, and after implementation, not connected to
the Budget.
This first article reveals,
for the first time, by the President of the United States
~~~
Obama's Fatal Mistake
on
Social Security
10/03/2013 @ 5:43PM
In a speech in Rockville ,
Maryland
“In a government shutdown,
Social Security checks still go out on time. In an economic shutdown — if we don’t raise the debt
ceiling — they don’t go out on time.“
Obama’s clear threat: If
the Republicans do not raise the debt ceiling by October 19, retired Americans
risk not getting their social security checks!
Obama’s threat will prove
a fatal mistake that he cannot “walk back,” as the Washington
pundits like to say.
In these eighteen words,
Obama destroyed the Democratic Party’s claim to be the protector of retired
Americans, who have earned their social security checks through decades of
payroll-tax contributions. The Democrats
warn that Republicans want to privatize social security and enrich Wall
Street with risky investment schemes. Under us, however, your
retirement funds are in a “lock box,” which guarantees you every retirement
dollar you have earned. Only the
Democrats stand for retired Americans.
But Obama today said
something entirely different! He admitted there is no lock box. Whether retirees get their social security
checks now somehow depends upon the federal government being able to borrow
more. And I thought social security funds were in the “lock box” of the
“Old Age and Survivors Trust Fund,” which at last
count has a balance of $2.4 trillion in safe U.S.
THE REAL REASON
THERE IS NO LOCK BOX
“The
bitter fighting over the government shutdown and the forthcoming debt ceiling
debate, has had one positive effect for the American people”, says economist
and author Dr. Allen W. Smith. According to Smith, both President Obama
and House Speaker John Boehner have publicly acknowledged that the Social
Security trust fund is empty. The $2.7
trillion reserve, which is allegedly in the trust fund is gone. Smith
says the money was embezzled by the federal government, over a 30-year period,
and spent to finance wars, unaffordable income tax cuts, and other government
programs.
Smith
says that knowledgeable individuals have known about the great Social Security
heist for decades, and Dr. Smith, himself, has devoted the past 13 years of his
life to researching and writing about Social Security financing. While
doing research for a book in 2000, Dr. Smith stumbled onto the Social Security
fraud. The government was channeling the
surplus revenue, generated by the 1983 payroll tax hike, into the general fund
and using it just like income tax revenue.
Smith was
outraged, and he vowed to expose the scam to the public. On
September 27, 2000, the author appeared on CNN News to discuss his newly
published book, “The Alleged Budget Surplus, Social Security, and Voodoo
Economics”, and to try to alert the public to what was happening to their
Social Security contributions. But CNN anchor, Lou Waters, wouldn’t take
Smith seriously. He seemed more amused than interested in what Smith was
saying. He ended the interview by asking the economist, “Are you a voice
crying in the wilderness?” As things turned out, Smith has spent the past
thirteen years being little more than a voice crying in the wilderness.
In a
speech in Rockville , Maryland
“In a
government shutdown, Social Security checks still go out on time. In an
economic shutdown—if we don’t raise the debt ceiling—they don’t go out.”
According
to Smith, the reason that full benefit checks cannot go out without an increase
in the debt ceiling, is because Social Security does not have enough revenue to
pay full benefits. Since 2010, the government has had to borrow money to
make up for the shortfall in revenue. Without an increase in the debt
ceiling the government cannot borrow the money.
If Social
Security had reserve money in the trust fund, as so many people think, some of
the reserve money could be used to pay benefits. But there is no reserve
money because the government has spent all of it, as it came in. The IOUs
in the trust fund are not real bonds. They are non-marketable. They
cannot be used to pay benefits and they cannot be converted into cash.
Essentially, they are worthless.
Just
three days after Obama’s big Social Security surprise, Speaker Boehner made
even bigger news by saying Social Security did not have any money because the
government had spent it all over the past 30 years.
Appearing
on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Boehner spilled the beans big
time. Below is an excerpt from the transcript:.
STEPHANOPOULOS:
So you sit down with the president. What would you offer him in that
conversation?
BOEHNER:
Let’s look at what’s driving the problem. 10,000 baby boomers like me
retiring, every single day. 70,000 this week. 3.5 million this
year. And it’s not like there’s money in Social Security or
Medicare. The government, over the last 30 years, has spent it all.
And so now, we’re in this whipsaw effect. This is only year three.
This is going to go on for another 22 years as baby boomers retire. We
know these programs are important to tens of millions of Americans. But
if we don’t address the underlying problems, they are not sustainable.
Smith is
critical of Boehner for not acknowledging that these underlying problems were
dealt with in the Social Security Amendments of 1983, which were initiated, and
rammed through Congress by Ronald Reagan and Alan Greenspan.
The
whole alleged purpose of that legislation was to force the baby boomers to
prepay most of the cost of their own benefits in order to run surpluses for the
next 30 years. The boomers paid their extra taxes, which amounted to $2.7
trillion dollars over the entire time period. It was, in fact, that $2.7 trillion paid by
the boomers and intended to fund the boomers’ retirement, that was stolen and
spent as general revenue.
The
surplus revenue was supposed to be saved and invested in marketable U.S.
The whole
sad story is explained in Dr. Allen W. Smith’s two books, “THE LOOTING OF
SOCIAL SECURITY”
and
“THE
IMPENDING SOCIAL SECURITY CRISIS”
Dr. Smith
is adamant that Social Security is not broken and does not need to be
fixed. He says the only problem is the theft of $2.7 trillion of Social
Security money by the government. Smith argues that, if the government
would repay the stolen money, Social Security would be able to pay full
benefits for two more decades without any other government action. He
says Social Security could be made fully solvent for many more decades by
simply removing the cap on earnings subject to the payroll tax, so everyone
paid payroll taxes on all of their income just as they do with the income
tax.
Smith
says that, since it took the government 30 years to loot the trust fund,
repayment could be made in annual installments over the next 30 years.
To learn
more about Allen W. Smith’s research and books, please visit his website at http://www.thebiglie.net.
WebWireID181111
Contact Information
Allen Smith
Publisher
Ironwood Publications
~~~
Majority
in House Opposes the Shutdown. Let Them
Vote to End it
Dave
Johnson Campaign for America
/ Op-Ed Published: Saturday 5 October 2013
A key fact about this
shutdown is that a majority of the House would vote to end
it if they were allowed to vote. There are enough Republicans that could
combine with Democrats to get the government back up and running, but
Republican leadership – backed by corporate/billionaire money – will not allow
them to vote.
Repeat, this shutdown
would be over immediately if the Republican leadership would allow the House to
vote.
If you agree that the
House Speaker John Boehner should allow a vote that would end the government
shutdown, sign our petition to him.
This is one more time that democracy is
being obstructed by a corporate/billionaire-funded minority. There are enough votes in the House of
Representatives to end this shutdown but the Republican leadership will not
allow such a vote to occur.
Just like the ongoing
obstruction in the Senate, where a minority blocks the will of the majority,
the House would vote in a minute to end the shutdown. But, just like with the Senate, democracy is
being obstructed — again by the corporate/billionaire-funded crowd. In the
Senate it’s the corporate/billionaire-funded Republican Party.
This time it’s the corporate/billionaire-funded Tea Party.
They hate democracy. They
are able to manipulate the undemocratic rules of the House and the Senate to
obstruct almost every bill and nominee. Now they are even obstructing governing
itself.
They Hate Government
Republicans
hate government, and we are finding out what happens when you elect people who
hate government to run the government. In this MUST WATCH video Senator Elizabeth
Warren explains why “the anarchy gang” is doing this: -
When was the last time the
anarchy gang called for regulators to go easier on companies that put lead in
children’s toys? Or for inspectors to
stop checking whether the meat in our grocery stores is crawling with deadly
bacteria? Or for the FDA to ignore
whether morning sickness drugs will cause horrible deformities in our babies?
When? Never. In fact,
whenever the anarchists make any headway in their quest and cause damage to our
government, the opposite happens.
Other Things They Hate
We got here by giving in. When they took unemployment benefits hostage
they got an extension of the Bush tax cuts. When they took the debt ceiling
hostage they got the economy-and-job-killing sequester. Encouraged, they have taken the government
hostage in an attempt to get rid of the “Obamacare” health care act.
If they can get away with
winning concessions again what will they go after next?
They never liked Medicare
— will they take the government or debt ceiling hostage to get rid of Medicare
next? What about Social Security? They HATE Social Security. Will they shut the government down and/or
threaten to default on the debt to get rid of Social Security? The Bush administration was working on a plan to privatize / sell
off the National Parks. Will they shut
the government down and/or threaten to default on the debt to force
privatization of the National Parks.
Discharge Petition
There is one mechanism
that could end this. If a majority of
members of the house sign a “discharge petition” this forces a vote. Democrats in the House are in the process of starting this effort right
now.
When was the last time the anarchy gang called for
regulators to go easier on companies that put lead in children’s toys? Or for inspectors to stop checking whether the
meat in our grocery stores is crawling with deadly bacteria? Or for the FDA to ignore whether morning
sickness drugs will cause horrible deformities in our babies?
When? Never. In fact,
whenever the anarchists make any headway in their quest and cause damage to our
government, the opposite happens.
Other Things They Hate
We got here by giving in.
When they took unemployment benefits hostage they got an extension of the Bush
tax cuts. When they took the debt ceiling hostage they got the
economy-and-job-killing sequester. Encouraged, they have taken the government
hostage in an attempt to get rid of the “Obamacare” health care act.
If they can get away with
winning concessions again what will they go after next?
They never liked Medicare
— will they take the government or debt ceiling hostage to get rid of Medicare
next? What about Social Security? They HATE Social Security. Will they shut the government down and/or
threaten to default on the debt to get rid of Social Security? The Bush administration was working on a plan to privatize / sell
off the National Parks. Will they shut
the government down and/or threaten to default on the debt to force
privatization of the National Parks.
Discharge Petition
There is one mechanism
that could end this. If a majority of
members of the house sign a “discharge petition” this forces a vote. Democrats
in the House are in the process of starting this effort right
now.
~~~
Weapons inspectors begin destroying Syrian chemical
stockpile and machinery
By ,
1:42 PM
Associated
Press writers Diaa Hadid in Beirut and Albert
Aji in Damascus , Syria
The inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons have about nine months to purge President Bashar Assad’s regime of its
chemical program. The mission, endorsed
by the U.N. Security Council, faces the tightest deadline in the watchdog
group’s history and must simultaneously navigate Syria
Sunday marked the fifth day that an advance team of around 20 inspectors
have been in the country and the first day that involved actually disabling and
destroying weapons and machinery, an official on the joint OPCW-U.N. mission
said.
The production equipment included filling and mixing machinery, some of it
mobile, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the matter.
The Syrians are responsible for the actual physical demolition of the
materials, while OPCW inspectors monitor the process and verify what is being
destroyed, the official said. He
declined to provide details or say where the work took place.
This is just the beginning of a complicated process to eliminate Syria
The production and storage facilities are understood to be scattered around
the country.
The OPCW-U.N. advance team arrived last week to lay the foundations for a
broader operation of nearly 100 inspectors. Those already in Syria
Members of the team are planning visits to every location where chemicals
or weapons are stored — from trucks loaded with munitions up to full-on
production sites.
Inspectors can use any means to destroy equipment, including crude
techniques like taking sledgehammers to control panels or driving tanks over
empty vats. But the second phase —
destroying battle-ready weapons — is more difficult, time-consuming and
expensive. It can be done by
incinerating materials in sealed furnaces at ultra-high temperatures or by
transforming precursor chemicals or diluting them with water.
It’s an arduous task in the best of times, and Syria
The civil war has laid waste to the country’s cities, shattered its
economy, killed around 100,000 people and driven more than 2 million people to
seek shelter abroad. Another nearly 5
million people have been displaced within the country, which has become a
patchwork of rebel-held and regime-held territory.
Underscoring the physical perils the inspectors face, four mortar shells
landed Sunday in the Christian quarter of al-Qasaa, killing at least eight
people, according to Syria
The disarmament mission stems from a deadly Aug. 21 attack on
opposition-held suburbs of Damascus U.S.
and Western allies accuse the Syrian government of being responsible, while Damascus
The Obama administration threatened to launch punitive missile strikes
against Syria Syria
In an interview in a state-run newspaper Sunday, Assad said the Syrian
regime began producing chemical weapons in the 1980s to “fill the technical gap
in the traditional weapons between Syria
and Israel
Associated Press writers Diaa Hadid in Beirut
and Albert Aji in Damascus ,
Syria
Sunday marked the fifth day that an advance team of around 20 inspectors
have been in the country and the first day that involved actually disabling and
destroying weapons and machinery, an official on the joint OPCW-U.N. mission
said.
The production equipment included filling and mixing machinery, some of it
mobile, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the matter.
The Syrians are responsible for the actual physical demolition of the
materials, while OPCW inspectors monitor the process and verify what is being
destroyed, the official said. He
declined to provide details or say where the work took place.
This is just the beginning of a complicated process to eliminate Syria
The production and storage facilities are understood to be scattered around
the country.
The OPCW-U.N. advance team arrived last week to lay the foundations for a
broader operation of nearly 100 inspectors. Those already in Syria
Members of the team are planning visits to every location where chemicals
or weapons are stored — from trucks loaded with munitions up to full-on
production sites.
Inspectors can use any means to destroy equipment, including crude
techniques like taking sledgehammers to control panels or driving tanks over
empty vats. But the second phase —
destroying battle-ready weapons — is more difficult, time-consuming and
expensive. It can be done by incinerating materials in sealed furnaces at
ultra-high temperatures or by transforming precursor chemicals or diluting them
with water.
It’s an arduous task in the best of times, and Syria
The civil war has laid waste to the country’s cities, shattered its
economy, killed around 100,000 people and driven more than 2 million people to
seek shelter abroad. Another nearly 5 million
people have been displaced within the country, which has become a patchwork of
rebel-held and regime-held territory.
Underscoring the physical perils the inspectors face, four mortar shells
landed Sunday in the Christian quarter of al-Qasaa, killing at least eight
people, according to Syria
The disarmament mission stems from a deadly Aug. 21 attack on
opposition-held suburbs of Damascus U.S. and
Western allies accuse the Syrian government of being responsible, while Damascus
The Obama administration threatened to launch punitive missile strikes
against Syria Syria
In an interview in a state-run newspaper Sunday, Assad said the Syrian
regime began producing chemical weapons in the 1980s to “fill the technical gap
in the traditional weapons between Syria
and Israel
~~~
To Understand the
Shutdown You Have
to Grasp the Mindset
of the GOP Base
Joshua Holland
Published:
Sunday 6 October 2013 -
It’s widely understood
that the government has been shut down by a relatively small number of Republican lawmakers who
represent deeply red districts. They’re insulated from public opinion at
large. They don’t fear a general
election loss to a Democrat; they’re motivated by avoiding a primary challenger
from their right flank.
So to fully understand
what’s driving the Republican Party’s brinkmanship, one has to look at the
motivations of its base voters – how they see the world around them. This lies at the heart of what’s happening in
the Capitol today.
Democracy Corps – a
Democratic-leaning polling firm – released a study this week based on a
series of focus groups they conducted with loyal Republican voters. They
divided them up into three sub-groups which together represent the base of the
party. Evangelicals represent the
largest group, followed by Republicans who identify with the tea party
movement. “Moderates,” the third group, make up about a quarter of the party’s
base, according to the pollsters.
Fear of a changing society
is one thing that unites all three factions. The battle over Obamacare, write the study’s
authors, “goes to the heart of Republican base thinking about the essential
political battle.”
They think they
face a victorious Democratic Party that is intent on expanding government to
increase dependency and therefore electoral support. It starts with food stamps
and unemployment benefits; expands further if you legalize the illegals; but
insuring the uninsured dramatically grows those dependent on government. They believe this is an electoral strategy —
not just a political ideology or economic philosophy. If Obamacare happens, the
Republican Party may be lost, in their view.
And while few
explicitly talk about Obama in racial terms, the base supporters are very
conscious of being white in a country with growing minorities. Their party is losing to a Democratic Party of
big government whose goal is to expand programs that mainly benefit minorities.
Race remains very much alive in the
politics of the Republican Party.
They
worry that minorities, immigrants, and welfare recipients now believe it is
their “right” to claim [public] benefits. Tea Party participants, in particular, were
very focused on those who claim “rights” in the form of government services,
without taking responsibility for themselves.
They are also unified in
their belief that Obama is a usurper who has hoodwinked the public into
re-electing him by hiding his true beliefs, which are essentially Marxist. They also think that Democrats have won the
major political battles of our time because Republican legislators in Washington
But there are also deep
divisions within the base, according to the analysis. Evangelicals still focus overwhelmingly on
social issues. They think gay rights are
the biggest threat to our society, but they also worry about the loss of what
they see as an idyllic small-town culture. They feel besieged as the cultural ground
shifts beneath them, and see themselves as a beleaguered, “politically
incorrect” minority.
Tea partiers display a libertarian
streak, and are far less concerned with social issues. They are staunchly pro-business. But there’s
an easy alliance between these two groups – which make up well over half of the
GOP base – because Evangelicals think the tea partiers are fighting back, and
vice versa.
Both groups displayed a
high level of paranoia, according to the researchers who conducted the study. They noted that this was the first time, in
many years of conducting focus groups, that participants worried that their
participation might trigger surveillance by the NSA or an audit by the IRS. In addition to thinking that Obama is a liar,
and a covert Communist, these two groups were also more likely to express the
belief that he is secretly a Muslim.
The moderates were, as one
might expect, quite different. Like the tea partiers, they don’t worry as much
about social issues. Their concerns are traditionally conservative – they worry
about excessive regulation and taxation. They have a hard time taking Fox News
seriously, and hold a deep disdain for the tea party faction. They are also keenly aware of their waning
influence within the coalition.
Moderates are not
so sure about their place in the current Republican Party. They worry about the ability of Republicans in
Congress to make government work. They
believe the party is stuck, not forward-looking, and representative of old
ideas. They worry about the Republican
Party’s right turn on social and environmental issues — which makes it
difficult, especially for young moderates — to view the Republican Party as a
modern party.
Unlike the tea partiers
and Evangelicals, the moderate faction desperately wants lawmakers in Washington
Climate change is another
dividing line between moderate Republicans and the hard-right. GOP moderates may be unsure of the science on
climate change, but they don’t reject it out of hand, and some are legitimately
worried about the effects of a changing climate.
In this, they stand out
from the Evangelical and tea party wings. The study’s authors write:
Moderates are not
even in the same conversation as Evangelicals who deeply doubt scientists writ
large and Tea Party Republicans who are consumed by the big government and
regulations that inevitably result from climate science.
Evangelicals and
Tea Party Republicans share and are consumed by skepticism about climate
science — to the point where they mistrust scientists before they begin to
speak.
~~~
FROM FLOYD:
The following is a complete copy of the
study that has been released. It is
long, 30 pages. You may or may not wish
to read it. I will tell you this, if you
read it you will find it to be extremely, I mean extremely interesting and
fascinating. In transferring this report
to my blog, it changed the format. I
have gone through it and divided it into paragraphs so that it is a lot easier
to read. The only thing that has changed
is the format. The content is as
published.
DEMOCRACY CORPS
C A R V I L L E
* G R E E N G E R G
GREEENBERG QUINLAN ROSNER
RESEARCH
To:
Friends of Democracy Corps
From: Stan Greenberg, James Carville, and
Erica Seifert
Inside
the GOP:
Report on focus groups with
Evangelical, Tea Party, and moderate Republicans
If you
want to understand the government shutdown and crisis in Washington
1. All
the passion, nuances and divisions found expression when we conducted this work
in the summer.
Understand
that the base thinks they are losing politically and losing control of the
country – and their starting reaction is “worried,” “discouraged,” “scared,”
and “concerned” about the direction of the country – and a little powerless to
change course. They think Obama has im-posed his agenda, while Republicans in
DC let him get away with it.
1
Over the
last two months, we have been releasing initial findings from the first phase
of research for Democra-cy Corps’ new Republican Party Project. This report
details findings from six focus groups among Republican partisans—divided into
Evangelicals, Tea Party adherents, and moderates. All participants indicated
that they voted only or mostly for Republican candidates and were screened on a
battery of ideological and political indi-cators. The groups were conducted in Raleigh , North Carolina
(moderate and Tea Party), Roanoke , Virginia (Tea Party and Evangelical), and Colorado Springs , Colorado
Understand
that the base thinks they are losing politically and losing control of the
country – and their starting reaction is “worried,” “discouraged,” “scared,”
and “concerned” about the direction of the country – and a little powerless to
change course. hey think Obama has
im-posed his agenda, while Republicans in DC let him get away with it.
Inside the GOP Democracy Corps
2
We know that Evangelicals are the largest bloc in the base,
with the Tea Party very strong as well. For them, President Obama is a “liar”
and “manipulator” who has fooled the country. It is hard to miss the deep
disdain—they say the president is a socialist, the “worst president in
history,” and “anti-American.”
For all
that, this is a deeply divided base. Moderates are a quarter of those who
identify Re-publican, and they are very conscious of their discomfort with
other parts of the party base. Their distance begins with social issues, like
gay marriage and homosexuality, but it is also evident on immigration and
climate change. Fiscal conservatives feel isolated in the party.
Evangelicals
who feel most threatened by trends embrace the Tea Party because they are the
ones who are fighting back. They are very in tune politically, but the Tea
Party base is very libertarian and not very interested in fighting gay
marriage.
Republicans
shutdown the government to defund or delay Obamacare. This goes to the heart of
Republican base thinking about the essential political battle. They think they
face a victori-ous Democratic Party that is intent on expanding government to
increase dependency and therefore electoral support. It starts with food stamps
and unemployment benefits; expands further if you legalize the illegals; but
insuring the uninsured dramatically grows those de-pendent on government. They believe
this is an electoral strategy—not just a political ideolo-gy or economic
philosophy. If Obamacare happens, the Republican Party may be lost, in their
view.
And while
few explicitly talk about Obama in racial terms, the base supporters are very
con-scious of being white in a country with growing minorities. Their party is
losing to a Demo-cratic Party of big government whose goal is to expand
programs that mainly benefit minori-ties. Race remains very much alive in the
politics of the Republican Party.
These are
strong common currents in the Republican base, but the thinking and passions
are very distinct and telling among the key blocs – and those have consequences
for those who seek to lead.
We
selected these three groups (Evangelicals, non-Evangelical Tea Party adherents,
and moderates) because combined they represent almost all of today’s Republican
partisans. The focusgroup loca-tions, demographic characteristics, and
participants’ ideological characteristics were all selected based on statistical
analysis of our first survey for this project. While these are focus groups,
and not statisti-cally representative, this analysis gives a real, robust, and
serious snapshot of who these Republicans are, how they think, and what matters
to them.
Evangelicals. Social issues are
central for Evangelicals and they feel a deep sense of cultural and political
loss. They believe their towns, communities, and schools are suffering from a
deep “culture rot” that has invaded from the outside. The cen-tral focus here
is homosexuality, but also the decline of homogenous small towns. They like the
Tea Party because they stand up to the Democrats.
Inside
the GOP Democracy Corps
3
Tea Party. Big
government, Obama, the loss of liberty, and decline of responsibility are
central to the Tea Party worldview. Obama’s America is an unmitigated evil
based on big government, regulations, and dependency. They are not focused on
social issues at all. They like the Tea Party because it is getting “back to
basics” and believe it has the potential to reshape the GOP.
Moderates. Moderates are deeply
concerned with the direction of the country and believe Obama has taken it down
the wrong path economically. They are centrally focused on market-based
economics, small government, and eliminating waste and inefficiency. They are
largely open to progressive social policies, including on gay marriage and
immigration. They disdain the Tea Party and have a hard time taking Fox News
seriously.
Inside the GOP
Democracy Corps
4
1. Focus groups as real
life
When a
Macomb County focus group participant shot back, “No wonder they killed him”
af-ter I read a statement by Robert Kennedy, that stopped me and led to a whole
new analysis of Reagan Democrats – and what were the core blockages to working
whites voting Democratic again. These groups with core Republican voters had
similar moments – but more important, these emerged as affinity groups where
the participants worked through their alienation and isolation, not just from
politically correct-liberal dominated media, but other Republicans, family
members, and neighbors. If you want to know why Republicans are at war
internally, start with their voters who are in turmoil.
While we
always reassure people of anonymity to allow open discussion, this was the
first time ever in our groups when the participants asked at various points
whether the NSA was listening in or whether their handouts were going to the
IRS. At the end of the group in Roa-noke, one man left his handout and noted,
“It’s probably digital, so you can check it on the NSA files.” He laughed, but
it was raised multiple times throughout the groups with Evangel-icals. Some of
the Tea Party men in Raleigh
Now
you’re going to guarantee that what we put down here, we won’t be getting a
call from the IRS about an audit or anything like that? (Tea Party man, Raleigh)
That
did cross my mind when I did the first phone call and she was asking all the
questions. I said, ‘I’m going to get a call from the IRS when this is done.’ (Tea Party man, Raleigh)
The
Evangelicals—who seem the most on the defensive when discussing popular
culture, de-mographic trends, changes in the family, and what is happening in
their states—wrote post-cards at the conclusion of the groups and commented
what a relief it was to be with people who think like they do.
I’m
not alone in the way I view things for the most part.
Republicans
are not the same as they were 50 years ago and need to go back to their
standards.
Not by
myself in thought process. … Thought it was a great conversation and very
in-formative. Thank you for the opportunity.
Good
to be around like minded people. All of the people feel the country is in
trouble due to the Democratic Party. Hope and pray that this will turn around.
Inside the GOP Democracy Corps
5
While our methodology is for groups to be homogenous to
encourage free discussion, we dis-covered here that the focus group became the
opportunity to express opinions they feel on the defensive about in real life.
The moderates who are uncomfortable with their own party on
social issues used the private post cards at the end of two hours to express
surprise there are other Republicans who think like themselves. While we did
not use the word “moderate” in the focus group script, they used the word
self-consciously in their postcards.
Surprised
at other females with fiscal conservative values while also being social more
moderate. …
I was
surprised that the group was more moderate on social issues, like I am. It
seems that this group focused on the fiscal aspect of Republicanism as the main
component.
Discussion
on “hot button” issues and how people with varying backgrounds seems to have
middleground…
Many
people are moderate because of $ issues & social issues.
The
common desire for a more moderate political party.
Again, we
underscore the uniqueness of what is happening in the Republican Party. We
con-duct homogenous groups to replicate real life homogeneity where people can
feel free to talk about their feelings and emotions. We think this is what
people say around the water cooler or a family dinner. But for the first time
for me, it felt like we were creating a safe space where Republican voters
could express feelings freely—and they did.
We
expected that in this comfortable setting or in their private written notes,
some would make a racial reference or racist slur when talking about the
African American President. None did. They know that is deeply non-PC and are
conscious about how they are perceived. But focusing on that misses how central
is race to the worldview of Republican voters. They have an acute sense that
they are white in a country that is becoming increasingly “minority,” and their
party is getting whooped by a Democratic Party that uses big government
programs that benefit mostly minorities, create dependency and a new electoral
majority. Barack Obama and Obamacare is a racial flashpoint for many
Evangelical and Tea Party voters.
Inside the GOP Democracy Corps
6
Barack Obama
While
many voters, even some Democrats, question whether Obama is succeeding and
getting his agenda done, Republicans think he has won. The country may think
gridlock has won, particularly during a Republican-led government shut down,
but Republicans see a president who has fooled and manipulated the public,
lied, and gotten his secret socialist-Marxist agen-da done. Republicans and
their kind of Americans are losing.
‘Liar’ is virtually the first association in all the groups – from
Tea Party to moderates. That is a visceral separation and reason to not listen
to him. But in the context of a re-elected presi-dent getting his way, it is an
expression of deep frustration with the country and people who believe him.
They
think he is manipulating words, using props and teleprompters to communicate a
false narrative to claim success for his governance.
The Tea
Party participants described him as a “spin doctor,” “misleading,” “slick,”
“slimy,” “untrustworthy,” “condescending,” and “an SOB.”
He’s
even slicker than Clinton
I just
think he’s a little bit slimy. (Tea
Party man, Raleigh)
He
reminds me of a used car salesman. He’s just trying to sell you something
regard-less of how good it is. (Tea
Party man, Raleigh)
Inside the GOP Democracy Corps
7
I had a concussion so they had to ask me a
bunch of questions ‘cause my mind wasn’t quite working and they said, ‘who’s
the President?’ And I said, ‘an S.O.B.’ and he said, ‘good enough.’ (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
They talk
about him as though he is a manufactured object, created by great political
opera-tives.
I
think he’s a marketing miracle because he was built. He was constructed by
market-ing. The logo – what presidential campaign has had that kind of a logo
and that kind of a visual – the posters, the colors, the way he was portrayed
in the logo. (Tea Party man,
Raleigh)
He can
tell every single person exactly how they want to hear what they want to hear. (Tea Party man, Raleigh)
When
the teleprompter’s not there, he really falls apart. So I don’t know how much
of all of this is him or if it’s his staff or whoever the Democratic Party is –
and he’s just the figurehead. (Tea
Party man, Raleigh)
The
moderates are not very different on this score:
He’s
trying to sell something. Like the old 1800s. Lay this bottle, cure all your
ills, sells it to the people and he’s out of dodge. That’s basically what he’s
trying to do. Trying to sell snake oil. (Moderate
man, Colorado Springs
He's
always campaigning. He's never, it's like you won. Now start leading. Quit
cam-paigning to me. (Moderate woman,
Raleigh)
He's
really good at the art of spin and kind of saying what we want to hear but it's
all kind of empty. (Moderate woman,
Raleigh)
Gives
a good speech. (Moderate man, Colorado Springs
He has to
lie because he is pursuing big-spending big-government programs and a secret
so-cialist agenda that the American people would never buy into if they really
knew.
When they
watch a TV video of President speaking on the Affordable Care Act, the
Evangeli-cal women in Colorado Springs wrote down some pretty harsh and
dismissive things: “Spin Dr” and “Chronic liar”; “fake”; “lies”; “just a
speech”; “liar,” “bullshit.” But the moderate men there were almost
indistinguishable: “He could grow some items with the B/S he is spewing”;
“Lies, lies, Lies, Lies, Lies!!!!!!!”; “lies,” “disregards real facts”;
“Socialism,” “Lies, Lies, Lies”; “Health care lies.”
Not
surprisingly, all the groups think Obama is about big government and big
wasteful spend-ing. But in Evangelical and Tea Party groups participants think
he is trying to fool the middle class with a more palatable patina while
pursuing a darker, secret, socialist agenda.
Inside the GOP
Democracy Corps
8.
Even when he’s trying his hardest to appease
conservative capitalist-oriented peo-ple…he still is spouting pure Marxist
philosophy. He can’t get away from it… I don’t know if he can…even find a
speechwriter that can help him sound like he’s actually an American capitalist.
(Evangelical man, Roanoke
Obama’s…just
pure distilled Marxism. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
We’re
not on his agenda. And he thinks these are things he should say to appease us,
because we’re middle class. We want jobs. We care about energy. We care about
whatever his talking points are. And yet…he can’t stop the ultra-liberal
Marxist bleed-ing through what he’s trying to say. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
And when
asked what is going right in the country, a Tea Party woman in Roanoke
Running through these reactions to Obama is a
sense of him being foreign, non-Christian, Muslim – and they wonder what really
are his motives for the changes he is advancing. They are not raised by everyone but they pretty common in
the private doubts that they had written on pieces of paper before the
discussion with the group.
Socialist,
income redistribution (Tea Party man, Raleigh)
What is
he really thinking? (Tea Party man, Raleigh)
Background
(Tea Party man, Raleigh)
Lack of
relationship with the American people. (Tea Party man, Raleigh)
Muslim;
birth agenda; Fake; not true (Tea Party man, Raleigh)
Not a US Roanoke
I don’t
believe he’s a Christian. He’s a tyrant. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
He wants
to fundamentally change the country (Evangelical man, Roanoke
He is
going to try to turn this into a communist country. (Evangelical woman,
Colora-do Springs)
His
motives behind his actions. (Evangelical woman, Colorado Springs
He
supports everything that is against Christianity. (Evangelical woman, Colorado Springs
Inside the GOP
Democracy Corps
9.
Citizenship question (Evangelical woman, Colorado Springs
Socialist background (Evangelical woman, Colorado Springs
Origin of
birth (Evangelical woman, Colorado
Springs
The
moderate men in Colorado Springs
Only
cares about self-promotion, not the AMERICAN people.
Hopefully,
he doesn’t change the Constitution so he can try to get elected again.
Feels
government can solve any problem.
He is
masonic Devil Illuminati, Lier can’t stand Him
American?
Lies and
scandals
Muslim?
They
think President Obama is on the verge of using his powers to pursue his agenda
without limits. That is evident in the frequent discussions about executive
orders and action: “When Congress is gone…he just does an Executive Order.
He’s going to get anything he wants. And there’s nobody there that will have
the guts enough to stand up to him”; “There’s so many secret things that go on
– that are – bills are passed and regulations are passed – we never know
about.” (Evangelical men, Roanoke
Much more
troubling was the fear of NSA and IRS being turned against the Republican
op-ponents of the government,
That’s
a big thing right now is when they were spying on us and looking at all the
stuff and you know I mean years ago my parents were talking about it. They’re
not like cra-zy and nuts or anything but I mean they always talked about it and
I kind of tried to, no they’re not but now we’re finding out more and more
information that everything we do you know, every Google search you make they
know about. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
He’s [Obama] turned the government into a spy agency on us. (Evangelical
man, Roa-noke)
Inside the GOP Democracy Corps
10
I think what we fail to realize—that it has…to
do with setting up an organization and a machinery that can control and spy on
every asset of our lives, and control it. And once it’s infiltrated with all of
the little webs…you won’t be able to undo it. (Evangeli-cal man, Roanoke
When
you find out that they’re keeping all the records of your telephone
conversa-tions, every email, everything that you’re doing – the government is
spying on you. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
And they
fear is that he is getting away with it – unchecked.
3. Big government and dependency Democrats:
Obamacare
Unifying
all Republicans is their revulsion toward big government. That revulsion
involves three distinct strands of thinking – two of which take the Republican
Party into realms of pre-occupation that threaten to marginalize the party.
The first
strand is big programs, spending, and regulations that undermine business. That
is pretty straightforward and is hardly surprising. That is probably the
dominant strand among the moderates who long for a fiscally conservative and
focused Republican Party. Their first associations with government are: “big”;
“waste”; “Regulations. Inefficient”; “Red tape, that’s all.” [Raleigh Colorado
Springs
The
moderates are very opposed to Obamacare because it is big spending; it won’t
work; it will hurt business and employment. Their first associations are:
“Stupidity”; “Job killer”; “And I say debt, D-E-B-T”; “Job killer.” [Raleigh
The
second strand is a concern with intrusive government that invades their
privacy, dimin-ishes their rights and freedoms, and threatens the Constitution.
Those worries are dominant among the Tea Party, though not exclusively. In both
Tea Party groups, they immediately associate the word government with the
phrase “too big.” This is followed by “out of con-trol,” “wasteful,” “corrupt,”
“Obama,” and “Democrats.”
And the
third is the most important and elicits the most passions among Evangelicals
and Tea Party Republicans – that big government is meant to create rights and
dependency and elec-toral support from mostly minorities who will reward the
Democratic Party with their votes. The Democratic Party exists to create programs
and dependency – the food stamp hammock, entitlements, the 47 percent. And on
the horizon—comprehensive immigration reform and
Inside the GOP Democracy Corps
11
Obamacare. Citizenship for 12 million illegals and tens of
million getting free health care is the end of the road.
These
participants are very conscious of being white and valuing communities that are
more likeminded; they freely describe these programs as meant to benefit
minorities. This is about a Democratic Party expanding dependency among African
Americans and Latinos, with elec-toral intent. That is why Obama and the
Democrats are prevailing nationally and why the future of the Republic is so at
risk.
They
associate the Democrats with government dependence and talk pointedly about
welfare recipients who demand too much and take advantage of the system.
And
the entitlement. Everybody seems to feel – And I volunteer at a food pantry…And
the thought of entitlement – I didn't get my food stamps, and I need my TANF
and I have to get my disability and I have to get my housing. (Evangelical woman, Colorado
Springs
Abused…It’s
too easy to get on it. People who can work won’t work, because they’re
receiving too many government benefits, and it’s easier to stay home and cash
in on the unemployment and the food stamps. (Evangelical
man, Roanoke
They
eat better than I do. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
That’s
the whole problem with the whole unemployment and the food stamps: people have
taken advantage of it…. Now… It’s a way of living. And that's the problem. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
I work
at Sam’s Club…lady comes in all the time. All of them: first, fourth, seventh,
ninth. “I’m tired of ribeye steaks. Where’s your lobster tails? Where’s your
seafood?” And they’re putting it in an Escalade…It’s disgusting…it’s full of
graft. It’s full of fraud. It’s full of abuse. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
In this
way, the Democratic Party looks to inject the government in places where
Evangelical and Tea Party Republicans believe matters are better left to
family, community, individuals, and churches.
They
worry that minorities, immigrants, and welfare recipients now believe it is
their “right” to claim these benefits. Tea Party participants, in particular,
were very focused on those who claim “rights” in the form of government
services, without taking responsibility for them-selves.
Well,
on the news, everything is -- every minority group wants to say they have the
right to something, and they don’t. It’s life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. It doesn’t say happiness. You get to be alive and you get to be
free. The rest of it’s just a
Inside the GOP Democracy Corps
12
pursuit. You don’t even – you’re not guaranteed
happiness. You have to work for it. (Tea
Party man, Raleigh)
I
think that America Roanoke
I see
a lot of lack of personal responsibility…People are constantly looking toward
the government to get what they need. (Tea
Party man, Raleigh)
Welfare
and making your own money. I think people don’t take responsibility for
themselves because they know – the government will take care of me and my five
chil-dren while they can’t. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
Health
care reform is just that. They believe Democrats not only create institutional
depend-ency, but also feeds it for their own political gain.
The
government’s giving in to a minority, to push an agenda, as far as getting the
votes for the next time. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
They've
got their hands in everything. (Evangelical
woman, Colorado Springs
They
want us to be dependent upon the government, more so than self-sufficient. And
that's what makes them powerful. (Evangelical
woman, Colorado Springs
That's
the sort of subculture that the Democrats are creating, is that sense of
entitle-ment, because they want us dependent on them. (Evangelical woman, Colorado
Springs
Obama
got elected because he kept saying, ‘I’ll keep giving you unemployment
forev-er.’ That’s why he got elected. Now you can live in this country without
a green card. Come on, we’ll give you insurance, we’ll give you money. That’s
why he got elected. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
There’s
so much of the electorate in those groups that Democrats are going to take
every time because they’ve been on the rolls of the government their entire
lives. They don’t know better. (Tea
Party man, Raleigh)
They’ve
got a very effective process apparently. They’ve figured out how to convince
the largest number of people to step in line. (Tea Party man, Raleigh)
It’s
going to be viewed as a means for everyone to get the same amount of
healthcare, whether they work for it or get it just because they’re here. (Evangelical man, Roa-noke) Inside the GOP Democracy Corps
13
And worry that it’s the uneducated who are most inclined to
vote for Democrats:
“They
vote on emotion instead of voting on what are they going to do. (Tea Party
man, Ra-leigh)
This
strategy extends beyond food stamps and unemployment to helping illegal
immigrants. And they fear this is just about creating a base for the Democratic
Party.
One of
the things the Democrats have done is created a dependency class of loyal
vot-ers. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
That’s
why they want all the illegal aliens legalized. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
Obamacare is the final blow. When Evangelicals talk about what is wrong in the country,
Obamacare is first on their list and they see it as the embodiment of what is
wrong in both the economy and American politics. In fact, when asked what she
talks about most, one woman in Colorado Roanoke
To
participants in these groups, Obamacare “just looks like a wave's coming,
that we're all going to get screwed very soon.” (Evangelical woman, Colorado Springs
Obamacare’s
just another intrusion on the Constitution. … And I just – I’m appalled. I’m
appalled by what’s going on in our country. (Evangelical
man, Roanoke
It’s
putting us at the mercy of the government again. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
[Our
rights] are slowly being taken away…like health care. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
4. Evangelicals: “A very politically incorrect
minority”
Evangelicals
are a third of the Republican base; they are the biggest and most intense
group: four-in-five are “strong” Republicans and straight ticket voters. Over
three quarters are mar-ried and well over 90 percent are white. Their
demographics – white, married, religious, and older – sets up a feeling that
they are losing. They talk about how the dominant politics and cultures have
encroached on their small towns, schools, and churches. What troubles them when
they talk with friends, family, and fellow believers is Obamacare, guns,
government en-croachment, gay marriage, and “culture rot.”
They
sense they are “pretty white” and “didn’t go to Harvard” – and “we’re just not
[Obama]” – which means they are becoming a pretty “politically incorrect
minority.” The so-called “tolerant” liberals just aren’t very tolerant when it
comes to them. Inside the GOP Democracy
Corps
14
It used to be different, as illustrated by several men in Roanoke
It’s a
little bubble. So everybody – it’s like a Lake Wobegon Roanoke
It is
from that perspective that they view President Obama.
I
think that his picture of the people in this room would be that we’re all a
bunch of racist, gun-clinging, flyover state, cowboy-hat wearing yokels.
Because we didn’t go to Harvard, and we’re not from New York Roanoke
In Roanoke Colorado Springs ,
participants remarked that Colorado
We’re
having to realize that we’re going to be in a very politically incorrect
minority pretty soon. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
And the point of departure for being a
politically incorrect minority is what’s happening with the acceptance of
homosexuality and the gay agenda.
Giving
gay and lesbian citizens of the right to marry the person they love can
seriously harm them, and seriously harm the children that they were raising. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
They’ve
taken what I consider a religious union between a man and a woman–pardon my
French – and bastardized it. (Evangelical
man, Roanoke
They
believe the dominant national culture promotes homosexuality and makes this
“minori-ty” culturally “normal.” There is a conspiracy to push “the gay
agenda.”
The
fact that it is so prominent, that's day to day. Like…that stupid song on 96.1…
It's on every five minutes. The “I can't change” song. It's on constantly. It's
song promot-ing gay and lesbian rights and all that stuff. But it's so
prominent. It's every 10 minutes. (Evangelical
woman, Colorado Springs
15
Like it’s a normal way of life. There’s a
minority of people out there are homosexual, but by watching TV, you’d think
everybody’s that way. And that’s the way they portray it. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
Somebody’s
got to say “the gay agenda.” That gets thrown around, a lot—that there’s this
vast conspiracy of gays that are trying to push this. But—you know, to some
ex-tent, it almost seems like that, because these things are just moving so
quickly along a certain trajectory. (Evangelical
man, Roanoke
Their
kids are under threat from popular culture and in the schools – and the gay
agenda seems to have displaced school prayer as the intrusive secularism that
is undermining their ability to raise their children right.
It's
really tough when my 13 year old comes home, and saying, the girls are holding
onto to hands in school, and the guys, there's nothing that can be done. Which
comes back to, Christ is taking – being taken out of schools. They're trying to
take anything that mentions the word God out of schools. They could get in
trouble, if they bring a Christian book. (Evangelical
woman, Colorado Springs
The
schools aren’t going to teach your kids the stuff that you want to. We don’t
need the schools raising our kids. We need to raise our kids, teach them what
our beliefs are, what our standards are, our morality is, and let them get an
education there, but not raise them there. (Evangelical
man, Roanoke
It’s
hard when the school is directly opposing what you’re trying to teach your
kids. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
As a
result, some have taken their kids out of the public schools and instead placed
them in church schools or are homeschooling:
“My
daughter's only one, and I already am making plans for her not to go to school
and have that [homosexuals] in her life, because it's not – Not only that it's
not just something that I agree with, but it's not something that should have
to be forced down her throat.” (Evangelical
woman, Colorado Springs
Another
had a hard time describing homosexual boys:
The
Scouts just started accepting boys that are – that – that identify as
homosexual. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
They
believe there is a dominant culture that has marginalized them ideologically,
linguisti-cally, and culturally. They believe that their views are unacceptable
outside of their small circles of like-minded friends and family. They are also
very conscious that they are viewed as rednecks by the liberal elite. Take, for
example, this exchange between Evangelical women in Colorado Springs
16
It becomes hard, because [if you’re conservative] you’re not allowed to have your
opinion, but everybody else is.
You
have to agree with another opinion. That's very annoying.
[Does
anyone else feel that way? That you're allowed to have certain opinions, but
not others?]
Yes. (All around)
[Where
does that pressure come from?]
It's
from the people who say that we're supposed to be tolerant.
[Who are
they?]
The
people who are intolerant. It's the left, for the most part…I just recently had
a de-bate on Facebook with a nephew of mine. And he accused me of so much stuff
out of one comment…And it was just – He was just clueless on where I stood.
So, we should not be surprised that the
Evangelicals are not politically correct on immigra-tion. In this case their feeling of being invaded is literal, as
when they discuss immigration in graphic terms, and point to language as what
bothers them most: “Don’t come here and make me speak your language. Don’t
fly your flag. You’re on American soil. You’re American.”; “You come to
our country, you need to learn our language.” (Evangelical men, Roanoke
Why
should I put—press 1 if I want to speak in English? You know, everything—every
politically correct machine out there says, “Press 1 for English. Press 2 for
Spanish.” (Evangelical man, Roanoke
The only ones standing up for them against
these forces are the Republican Party, Fox News, and the Tea Party – and the
Grand Old Party is doing none too well.
Feeling
most besieged by what is happening in the country, these strong Republicans
need an effective and principled party, but they think many Republican politicians
have lost their way. There are too many “RINOs” who cannot stop what is
happening.
The
problem is there’s not a party that thinks like us. We don’t have a voice in
Wash-ington. Or where else? The Republican Party? They might as well just have
a D be-side their name, as far as I’m concerned. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
I
don’t have a party anymore. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
And
the Republicans – a lot of Republicans are just RINOs – Republican in name
only. But we’ve really got to turn this ship around, or we’re in deep doo. (Evangelical Inside
the GOP Democracy Corps
17
man, Roanoke
Above
all, they think the Republican Party has proved too willing to “cave” to the
Obama agenda, which is winning.
They
cave all the time. (Evangelical woman, Colorado Springs
They’re
rollovers. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
They
worry that the party is too internally divided to be effective.
It
sounds like they're fighting. And they're not happy with each other. And it's
like little kids sometimes. (Evangelical woman, Colorado Springs
Fortunately,
there is Fox News, which they describe as the only network “in the middle.”
FOX is
about the middle. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
[Fox News
is] about the only one that gives you both sides. (Evangelical man, Roa-noke)
I
don’t think they’re trying to make the news. I think they’re trying to report
the news. It seems like everybody else is trying to make the news. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
The greatest source of hope is the Tea Party
because they are standing up and pushing back. They may not agree with the Tea
Party on some issues, but they share a special soli-darity given how isolated
they are.
When
asked about out country’s greatest strengths and what gives them hope, the Tea
Party is universally mentioned. They say that people are finally “standing up”
and “fighting back.”
Well,
I would say, the rise of the Tea Party, that people are getting involved, and
they're standing up… People are saying hey, this isn't what's in our
Constitution, and it's not what's in our schools. And I think people are taking
a stand now, and we need to, before it's too late. (Evangelical woman, Colorado
Springs
America
is rising back up and getting a backbone again, and making our voices heard one
way or another, whether it's Tea Party, or whatever else. People are being
em-boldened. (Evangelical woman, Colorado Springs
They
are a group to be reckoned with, because if we’re going to turn things around,
The Tea Party’s going to need to be part of it. And less government and less
spending, and throw the rascals out – to quote Ross Perot – is what they’re all
about. I’m there. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
18
I thank God there’s enough people getting angry
now and it will have to stop. I think people realize that we’re going to have
to rise up and take control. (Evangelical
man, Roanoke
I'm
very proud of them for standing up. It was about time…it's given me courage to
be able to say what I believe. (Evangelical
woman, Colorado Springs
And in a
room full of like-minded others, they become energized and feel ready to fight
back, and reclaim what they believe has been taken from them. At the conclusion
of the group in Roanoke
5. Tea Party: “Back to basics”
Tea Party
enthusiasts form just over a fifth of the base Republican voters – and are
cheered on for the moment by the Evangelicals who are depending on their conservative
backbone. These are straight ticket, anti-government, pro-business voters who
are more confident that they can get America America
In both
Tea Party groups, the phrase “back to basics” was repeated multiple times. What
this means is they want to return to a time when they believe government was
small, people lived largely free of the government, and Americans took
responsibility for themselves.
This is
not those times. Government is catering to those who have not earned their
benefits or the freedoms of this country. They freely talk about food stamps,
“welfare recipients,” and illegal immigrants. These groups are the most
anti-immigrant, anti-food stamps, and anti- Obamacare and its potential
beneficiaries of the Republican groups. They are also the most anti-Obama,
anti-Obama agenda and anti-Obama politics—because these threaten the basics.
Like
other Republicans, they hate big government and dependency that are central to
the Obama Marixist project, but they are also acutely alarmed at government
invasion of their privacy, rights, and freedoms. Freedom is on the line.
I
think the government needs to stay out of our private lives. That’s my right to
privacy and the issues that affect – that run this country like a business,
that’s where they be-long. But telling people on a personal level what they can
or cannot do I do have a problem with that. (Tea
Party woman, Roanoke
19
Our freedoms are getting taking away all the
time with more regulations and rules and things we can’t do. And we let it
happen, and then all of a sudden we’re not going to have any left. (Tea Party man, Raleigh)
Gun
control, business taxes… regulations. (Tea
Party man, Raleigh)
Gun
control is the most immediate battle to stop big government encroachment.
I
think that our freedom is slowly being taken away from us, like with the gun
control and I don’t know, just everything. I just fear for our freedom. I don’t
want to be like the other countries and have to be told what to do and when to
do it. (Tea Party wom-an, Roanoke
I
think we’re slowly losing our freedom. You know just by – you can’t choose
any-thing, you know when it comes to gun control or anything…I don’t’ think
they should take the guns away. (Tea
Party woman, Roanoke
There’s
talk of the repeal of Stand Your Ground laws and things like that. That’s a
diminishing right. (Tea Party man,
Raleigh)
And some
used a combination of revisionist history and Constitutionalism to articulate
this right.
For me
you know our founders…we had to rise up and we had to defend ourselves and take
over this country and who knows if that has to happen again sometime so I don’t
want the government – the government already has enough knowledge and stuff
about what’s going on in my life so if they want to take away all of our
rights, I mean I just feel like we’re Nazi Germany or something. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
The Tea Party Republicans are staunchly
pro-business—to the point of celebrating trickle-down economics. While there was some skepticism about Wall Street in the
women’s group, for the most part, these participants expressed pro-business,
anti-tax, anti-regulation attitudes. Even if they were not currently reaping
the rewards of the economy, they did not blame busi-ness greed, but rather
government regulation.
The
whole middle-class-up economy format is completely ridiculous. Because who’s
going to give the middle class their money? The upper class. The middle class
isn’t going to make money coming out of nowhere. They’ve got to get a job. And
who gives the jobs? The rich people. So if you take all the rich people’s
money, they’re not going to be able to give anybody a job. Just it’s so
backwards. He keeps talking about a strong middle class. I don’t want a strong
middle class. I want to make all the middle class rich people, because then
you’ve got even more rich people who can give more jobs. It’s like a – it’s
just ridiculous. (Tea Party man,
Raleigh)
I
think [Wall Street] provides
a lot of jobs. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
20
Our economy feeds off of people who make more
money than others. That’s just the way capitalism works and I think that it is
punishing people who go out and make a great job and have a lot of money. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
The Evangelicals admire the Tea Party activists
right now, but at some point, their relaxed, almost libertarian views on social
issues may create new fractures. They are
in a very dif-ferent place, and they think the focus on homosexuality and gay
marriage may be unhelpful politically.
On gay
marriage, Tea Party Republicans are apt to say, “who cares?” or it’s not the
govern-ment’s business.
Who
cares? (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
I
don’t want the government telling me who I’m sleeping with or whatever in my
bed-room, so I just don’t think it’s the government’s business. (Tea Party woman, Roa-noke)
It’s
fine with me. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
I
think it’s not important. I mean either way we have so many bigger issues to
worry about. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
It
doesn’t hurt anybody. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
I
don’t think the government as any say in it…I personally don’t agree with gay
mar-riage, but I don’t think the government should say who can get married and
who can’t. It’s not their business. (Tea
Party man, Raleigh)
They’ve
got a lot more to deal with than that. (Tea
Party man, Raleigh)
And the
Tea Party women in Roanoke
I
think it’s all right to choose. (Tea
Party woman, Roanoke
Even
though I’m not for abortion myself … I don’t think it’s right to tell a women
whether she can or not because you don’t know her situation. Do I think that
it’s OK for women to use abortions as their birth control? No I think that’s
completely wrong but if a woman was raped and conceived a child and she knows
she can’t look at that child every day, she can’t carry it in her body, why
stop her from – I don’t know. (Tea
Party woman, Roanoke
21
They do other good things. They do yearly
exams. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
And
birth control. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
And
they teach what’s realistic you know, they teach that kids are gonna have sex
these days. It’s just the way things are. (Tea
Party woman, Roanoke
Not only
are they are more open to gay marriage and choice, but many see social issues
as a potential distraction, or a force to divide the Republican Party.
The
government, the media, the news media, you know. Of course – it’s gay rights,
it’s abortion, it’s stuff that’s been going on for years. What we need to be
focused on is the financial situation. All the rest of it, I think they’re
throwing stuff out, they’re feeding it to the media. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
The
government is feeding stuff to the media to get us talking and arguing about
gay rights, about abortions and stuff like that when we need to be focusing on
jobs you know. If we have no jobs, we have no money, we are gonna be at the
mercy of the gov-ernment. They take our jobs. We’re done. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
For many
of these Tea Party voters, gay rights and abortion are getting in the way of
their bat-tle against big government. The women in Roanoke
I
think the Republicans have lost so many people to the Democratic Party because
of social issues, because of pro-life and more open ideas where if we could
eliminate that from the conversation I think we’d have an entirely different
electorate. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
And
another pointedly critiqued the GOP’s conservative social agenda because it
distracts and fractures the party.
They
feel like… if they scream loud enough about you know, gays you know and
lesbi-ans you know, ruining our country that that’s gonna make some Christian
fired up and say yeah I’m gonna vote for him even if maybe I don’t agree with
these other things and gain that vote when really I think in general we’re all
sick and tired of hearing about all that and I just wanna hear how you’re gonna
help the country in general. (Tea
Party woman, Roanoke
For the Tea Party Republicans the solution to
this internal discord lies in the Tea Party. Many believe the whole party should rally around the Tea
Party faction.
The
Tea Party is trying to get back to the basics. Then you’ve got – even within
the Republican Party trying to fight the Tea Party. It’s like, “Don’t fight
each other. Let’s join together and be one party.” (Tea Party man, Raleigh) Inside the GOP Democracy Corps
22
I think [the Tea Party] is good [for the
Republican Party.] I think that the rest of the GOP needs to get on board. We
need to all agree on some of the basic stuff. (Tea Par-ty man, Raleigh)
I
think it’s a good thing, because [the Tea Party represents] core
Conservatives…So you’ve got the Republicans against the Conservatives, and they
said, “You need to be more Conservative if you’re going to win the elections
and get more people.” (Tea Party man,
Raleigh)
And thank God they have Fox News – and as a consequence they do not feel as embattled as they
take on the fight to restore the basics.
In Roanoke
I like
it. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
I
enjoy it. If I’m on the treadmill, I’m plugging into Fox. I just agree with a
lot of their approach. I’m a conservative. I’m a social liberal but I’m a
fiscal conservative and I agree with a lot of what they have to say. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
I like
Bill O’Reilly. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
I
absolutely love Bill O’Reilly. (Tea
Party woman, Roanoke
I wish
there was more Fox News. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
And men
in Raleigh
It’s
great. (Tea Party man,
Raleigh)
It’s
the only news channel I watch. (Tea
Party man, Raleigh)
It’s
the only one I watch. (Tea Party man,
Raleigh)
I like
it. I’m missing two hours of it. (Tea
Party man, Raleigh)
6. Moderates: “I can’t sell my kids on this
party.”
Moderate
Republicans make up a quarter of the Republican Party – and pale in size and
influ-ence to the Evangelicals and Tea Party supporters – and they know it.
While they are firm Republicans, some have started splitting their tickets. Inside the GOP Democracy Corps
23
They are acutely
conscious that their biggest difference is on social issues. While the Tea Party Republicans asked, “who cares?” and
questioned government’s role in regulating per-sonal choices, the moderates
could not understand why gay couples did not have comparable rights. They were
comfortable
with a legal basis for gay marriage.
Their
modern views on gay marriage mark a sharp distinction from Evangelicals. In
fact, many moderates don’t understand why it is a debate at all.
My
idea is if they’re going to do it, let them do it. (Moderate man, Colorado
From a
legal standpoint I don't understand why it's a debate because I think that gay
people should actually be allowed to get married because they should have, well
first of all every argument I've heard against it has been based on religion
and if our gov-ernment is truly separate from religion in our government should
be able to make laws based on religious beliefs. Secondly I think if gay people
want to get married and then they want to get divorced they should have to pay
for divorce just like I did. (Moderate
woman, Raleigh)
It
just doesn't really make any sense why they shouldn't be allowed to…have that
kind of special bond. (Moderate woman,
Raleigh)
I mean
they're [together anyway. You know? The world is going to change anyway. And it
is changing anyway every way. (Moderate
woman, Raleigh)
That's
what I don't understand, is like a have houses together and they do everything
that a married couple would do together and I just don't understand. (Moderate wom-an, Raleigh
The
first gay divorce was filed in Massachusetts―Good, that’s what I like. I’d like
them to have the same opportunity we have. (Moderate
man, Colorado
Doesn’t
hurt me. It doesn’t affect my life. (Moderate
man, Colorado
I
don’t understand why you can regulate what the hell I think and do. This is a
free fricken country. There’s been homosexuals since the Roman times and
before. What the hell are you scared of them? Are you scared they’re going to
get you? Are you? Are you scared they’re going to get your kids? (Moderate man, Colorado
And they
diverge sharply from Evangelicals when it comes to Planned Parenthood.
I
think it's necessary for a lot of different reasons and not saying just
abortion, people associated with abortion but I think it does so much more than
that they don't get credit for. (Moderate
woman, Raleigh)
I
think Planned Parenthood is great and I think it always has been, just I mean
it just offers people options it offers a lot of education. (Moderate woman, Raleigh) Inside the GOP Democracy Corps
24
While illegal immigration was a defining issue for Tea
Party and Evangelical Republicans, the moderates do not focus on the illegals
as undeserving and seem mostly pragmatic, particu-larly on the feasibility of
mass deportation:
“I mean
I don't think it's feasible to say, send everybody home;” (Moderate woman,
Raleigh)
I mean
it's a huge struggle to get here illegally so I think if they are here
illegal-ly…they are not leaving. And that means they are going to be putting a
toll on our roads…taking up space in classrooms…so it would be nice if they
were legal and they actually could be contributing to that tax circle…I just
think getting them a path to that would be great. (Moderate woman, Raleigh)
Others
even articulate that immigrants are good for the country and the economy. They
speak of them having good work values, not as people looking to become
dependent.
I feel
like if we're not going to embrace some sort of path to citizenship we're going
to see a cost of a lot of services go up. (Moderate
woman, Raleigh)
And
they work hard and they actually realize the American dream. And a lot of us
Americans complain, we won’t do what we think we’ll do. (Moderate man, Colorado
Many
immigrants come into our country do better than we do… they don't complain. (Moderate man, Colorado
I need
more customers. I need more people to sell things to. I need more people to do
business with. And I can see that these people are potential customers. And the
jobs they did… we won’t do… We just flat won’t do it…We don’t have some of the
worth ethic they have…I want it to all be legal… I don’t mind that they’re
customers. They can pay taxes. (Moderate
man, Colorado
The moderate Republicans were surely concerned
about big government. Their first
as-sociations with government are negative—it is too big and does not operate
well. They asso-ciate it with “waste,” “inefficient,” “regulations,” and “red
tape.” They believe their taxes are too high and believe government spends too
much money on bureaucrats’ salaries and high end offices.
But those views of big government combine with
more positive associations—how rights have
progressed and how the country has become more free. They honor freedom without
the same sense of threat as Tea Party and Evangelical Republicans.
How
they've progressed through the years. Women, people of color. We have a lot to
be thankful for. (Moderate woman,
Raleigh) Inside the GOP Democracy
Corps
25
I just think of our whole Bill of Rights, a lot
of places where people still immigrate here. I mean everything from voting to I
mean property, just all of them come to mind. (Moderate woman, Raleigh)
I
think we feel more free than we probably ever have before. I just look at, as
much as we have all these debates and whatever and yet we're able to have all
these debates because we are really more free than we're ever been. (Moderate woman, Raleigh)
But they stand out for being equally concerned
with government dysfunction – and the Re-publican Party role in national
polarization and gridlock. As one woman in Raleigh
They've
been holding every thing up in Congress lately. Like, the Democrats proposed
this but Republicans just say no. (Moderate
woman, Raleigh)
In stark
contrast to the conversations among Evangelical and Tea Party adherents, these
folks are desperate for “middle ground.”
It’s
like you have to be on one side or the other about race. And you have to be on
one side or the other about healthcare. And you, like all these other things
and I mean it really, it seems like maybe there's some middle ground that it
never seems to be that we get to that, as a country it doesn't ever seem like
we really get to that kind of mid-dle ground. (Moderate woman, Raleigh)
I feel
like everybody, especially in politics, like a magnet. There's both sides and
we can't get to that middle ground…which accomplishes anything. I feel like
there's a whole lot of talk and not a whole lot of action that just keeps tying
everybody up and just this constant circle of just kind of anger and you can't
get through it. (Moderate woman,
Raleigh)
As a
result, they see that necessary government functions no longer function.
It goes
back to also the government's fighting, it's like we have a…Democratic
legisla-ture and they all get voted out and replaced by Republicans who will
undo everything the Democrats did but then the next time then it will be
Democrat again and they'll undo everything and put in new stuff and then it
will go back and the undo everything and things that used to be so simple like
a transportation bill can't get past anymore because they say I'm not voting
for it because it's Republican or vice versa. So that's my concern, the leaders
can't get together. (Moderate woman,
Raleigh)
Like
other Republicans, the moderates worry about Obamacare: companies not hiring
full time; more part-time jobs and stress on small businesses. But in the group
of moderate Re-publican women, these conversations about Obamacare had a
different tone than in the other Inside
the GOP Democracy Corps
26
groups. While strongly opposed to big government,
inefficiency, and higher taxes, the discus-sion in the moderate women’s group
was very pragmatic—with women weighing the poten-tial trade-offs between the
benefits of the ACA and its potential costs. It was not focused on newly
dependent populations.
I
think just in general the pre-existing condition, getting rid of that I think
is great but at the same time you have to look at what that's affecting. And it
means that healthy young people are going to be paying more. (Moderate woman, Raleigh)
And in
striking contrast, the moderate women launched into a discussion that was more
char-acterized by uncertainty than by anger. The dominant thrust of the
conversation revolved around questions about Obamacare—and what it would mean
for them, their healthcare plans, and their healthcare choices. In that, they
sounded like normal voters.
When I
think about just what I'm concerned about healthcare is one of the things. I'm
just uncertain about what the changes would mean for me… So that scares me for
my own future. (Moderate woman,
Raleigh)
My
mom's all worried about like if she got Alzheimer's…Like what are the real
ramifi-cations of the bill? (Moderate woman,
Raleigh)
The moderates view the Tea Party and Fox News
as part of the problem – “extreme” and “a bunch of crap” respectively. They are turned off by Fox and at best amused by the Tea
Party.
Some say
they like the small government ideas the Tea Party was putting forward several
years ago, but say they have been turned off by the Tea Party’s leaders, who
are “une-lectable,” “idiots,” “extreme,” and:
A
little wacky. (Moderate woman, Raleigh)
Extreme.
(Moderate woman, Raleigh)
It's
kind of, the Tea Party is being just as closed minded as the other group. (Moderate woman, Raleigh)
Idiots.
(Moderate man, Colorado
Just
something doesn’t smell right. (Moderate
man, Colorado
As one man
in Colorado
27
The people they bring out or they put forward,
you sometimes have a sense of how they actually got there. You know,
maybe…their fundamentals good but…have them promote fundamentals. (Moderate man, Colorado
And on
Fox News, many moderates outright reject it as a news channel: “It tells
about as much truth as like Jerry Springer does now.” (Moderate man, Colorado
Moderates are not so sure about their place in
the current Republican Party. They
worry about the ability of Republicans in Congress to make government work.
They believe the par-ty is stuck, not forward-looking, and representative of
old ideas. They worry about the Re-publican Party’s right turn on social and
environmental issues—which makes it difficult, es-pecially for young
moderates—to view the Republican Party as a modern party.3
3 In the
group of moderate women in Raleigh, participants were very supportive,
surprisingly so, of a Hillary Clinton presidency. Weighing the option of voting
for Hillary Clinton versus a Republican male, the moderate Republican women in Raleigh chose Clinton
While
they continue to appreciate the GOP’s fiscal conservatism, these fractures make
it dif-ficult for educated young people to identify with Republicans. As one
man in Colorado
I
can’t sell my kids on this party. I agree with…some of their positions. But the
stupid things… for instance, the rape crap they were saying… I can’t sell them
on my party. These kids are smart, they know these stupid politicians are
saying crap. And these guys are representing us and they show their ignorance
often. And just shut their mouth and do – again, get out of our bedrooms, get
out of our lives and do what they’re supposed to do. (Moderate man, Colorado
Springs
I
think of a white 54-year-old man in a business suit. And my mom. (Moderate woman, Raleigh)
I feel
hopeful [about the Republican
Party] on an economy level. I feel doubtful on a personal rights level, a
women's rights level, an environment level. So those two is-sues. But the rest,
economy-wise, budget-wise I feel hopeful. (Moderate woman, Ra-leigh)
I just
tend to be a little bit more moderate on social issues. However I'm a pretty
staunch fiscal conservative so it's kind of like at least among my peers
there's a change in kind of the conservative group. But it doesn't necessarily
seem like the Re-publican Party is changing with it. (Moderate woman, Raleigh) Inside the GOP Democracy Corps
28
7. Climate change
Climate
change is poised to replace health care reform among Republicans, with the very
same dynamics already in evidence. But that also could further isolate and
divide Republi-cans too.
Moderates
are more apt to accept the science—and respond more positively to science in
gen-eral. When we asked them about “scientists,” they responded, “respected”
and “smart.” Alt-hough some are doubtful about climate change, they do not
reject science offhand, but rather say they simply do not know enough to know
who to believe.
We’ve
gone through drought cycles in the ‘80s. And we’re in a little bit of a drought
cycle now, but it balances out left and right. And it’s not because we’re
driving more Prius’s, you know. It’s just the way that mother earth runs
itself. (Moderate man,
Col-orado)
I’m
not smart enough to say [climate scientist are] full of shit… But I am smart
enough to know I need to get more information before I say anyone’s full of
shit. I do know that. (Moderate man, Colorado
There’s
been climate change all through history. But I just don’t know enough to know
what we’re doing. I can’t say for sure we’re not a problem. (Moderate man, Colorado
And while
moderates reject high taxes and over-regulation, many do accept that climate is
one area where government ought to do more.
I’m
glad we’re starting to do [more on] energy standards, I wish it was higher…I’m
glad that we’re seeing more efficient cars. I’m glad they passed that to where
in 2015, we have to have cars that run more efficiently. (Moderate man, Colorado
Watching
landfill and watching vehicle emissions, watching what we’re pumping into our
rivers, that’s very, very smart, period. Regardless of climate change. (Moderate man, Colorado
I
mean, that’s just part of good stewardship of the earth that we’ve been given.
And I think that you find a lot of Republicans will feel that way too because a
lot of Republi-cans hunt. They’re very sensitive to what the environment does
to the hunting, you know, the changes that they see and anything like that. (Moderate man, Colorado
Moderates
are not even in the same conversation as Evangelicals who deeply doubt
scientists writ large and Tea Party Republicans who are consumed by the big
government and regula-tions that inevitably result from climate science.
Evangelicals
and Tea Party Republicans share and are consumed by skepticism about climate
science—to the point where they mistrust scientists before they begin to speak.
Inside the GOP Democracy Corps
29
Well, the scientific community in general is
minimizing or marginalizing people that are bringing up doubts… You can look in
biology, you can look in geology, you can look in chemistry, and you can see
that the theory doesn't hold up. And yet the scien-tific world won't
acknowledge that. And if you do say it, and you're a PhD candidate, you can be
denied your PhD. You can be denied your Master's degree. (Evangelical woman, Colorado
Springs
I
think that we're being fed a lot of misinformation. (Evangelical woman, Colorado
Springs
Just
like the whole evolution-creation thing…I think we waste a lot of time arguing
with the science. I think we would all agree that it’s the policy that we don’t
agree with… So that seems to be where we’re – we’re losing the fight because
we’re fighting the science. And you can’t fight the science. (Evangelical man, Roanoke
I
wonder if they don’t put that out there to distract you. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
Back
in the 70s, there were articles out there that another ice age was coming, and
that’s just 30 years ago. So now all the articles say, “Hey, it’s getting
warmer.” Well they’ve already proven the past 12 years it hasn’t gotten warmer.
(Tea Party man, Ra-leigh)
You
could have 12 scientists on this side talking all about global warming, and you
can get 12 scientists that will have the complete opposite. So you’re listening
and you just don’t know. (Tea Party man,
Raleigh)
If you
look, there was an ice age. So it used to be really, really, really cold, and
inevi-tably it’s got to warm up eventually. It can’t stay that cold all over
forever. And even-tually – I think that nature is in cycles. (Tea Party man, Raleigh)
Tea Party
Republicans, in particular, are concerned that climate science is another way
to force regulations on individuals and businesses.
I
think I saw somewhere we have like 100-plus regulations added every day. (Tea Par-ty man, Raleigh)
The
politicians and those people – celebrities. Most of them may or may not believe
it, but it’s an opportunity for them to gain power, make money, push their
agenda. They want to regulate everything…they want to control it, so this is a
great excuse for them to gain that control. And if the world were covered in
ice right now, they’d find anoth-er reason to gain control. (Tea Party man, Raleigh)
And they
fear the subsequent costs—both to consumers and taxpayers. Inside the GOP Democracy Corps
30
The government will spend you know hundreds of
thousands of dollars to check out some bird you know, that’s fading away or something.
Don’t worry about that bird. Worry about the people you know. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
I mean
I think we have to…you know and try to make sure that we’re recycling and
taking care of our resources…but not at the cost of the jobs and our economy. I
mean if we regulate down …to zero emissions…but then a car costs…200,000
dollars, well then we can’t afford it all right. (Tea Party woman, Roanoke
And
all those regulations are putting companies out of business and like you’re
say-ing, making products too expensive. (Tea
Party woman, Roanoke
And we probably need to remind you that Evangelicals and
Tea Party Republicans dominate the party. This looks like the future battle
ahead, driven by dynamics of the Republican Party.
~~~
If the good Lord is willing and the
creek don't rise, I'll talk with you again next Tuesday, hopefully, October 15,
2013.
God Bless You All
&
God Bless the United States of America
and
God we need your guidance for
our Country
more than ever in my lifetime.
Floyd
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