We’ve heard a lot in recent days from assorted manosphere dudes about how the “slut vote” – and the endless hunger of our nation’s “sluts” for free contraception – helped to bring about a humiliating end to Romney’s presidential hopes. The sluts went for Obama, we heard, because he promised them (and women in general) what they supposedly want most: “free stuff without ever having to work.”
Minus the word “slut,” this was the basic argument we’ve heard over the past week from a lot of right-wingers as well, including such big names as Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly, who’ve been loudly complaining that Obama won over women – and minorities – by promising to give them “stuff.”
Well, today, a new voice joined this chorus: Mitt Romney himself. In a conference call today with some of his big donors – no doubt a fairly dispirited bunch – Romney offered this explanation for his defeat:
The Obama campaign was following the old playbook of giving a lot of stuff to groups that they hoped they could get to vote for them and be motivated to go out to the polls, specifically the African American community, the Hispanic community and young people. … In each case they were very generous in what they gave to those groups.
Never mind, as the Los Angeles Times points out, that Romney lost in some key states that have a minimal minority population, or that Romney’s promised tax cuts could be considered gigantic gifts to the rich.
While Romney talked less about gender than he did about race and enthnicity, he did single out one group that he said Obama had been especially generous to: young women. And you all know the easiest way to bribe a young female voter. As Romney put it:
Free contraceptives were very big with young, college-aged women.
Apparently the government has been shipping out birth control pills along with those Obama Phones.
But that’s being a snotty, politically-correct liberal!
I know you wouldn’t consider it that, but they would. Remember, the GOP has been telling them for 30+ years that they’re the only Real Americans, and everyone else is trying to take America away from them. Anything that implies they’re not the only Real Americans is going to be seen as an attack, especially if you seem to be siding with the ones who are trying to take America away from them.
I come from a rural part of a blue state. 90% of everyone was and is like that.
Maybe. If they don’t write it off as commie propaganda.
I started to write a long post, but then I realized that Cassandra basically already covered everything I was going to say in one paragraph. So, yeah, this.
I think there are plenty of ways to appeal to fear in terms of potential outcomes of Republican policies, it’s just that most of the people on our side are too ethical to be comfortable being that manipulative.
I…really have no idea what you’re trying to say here? You start with “it does work” and end with “it won’t work.” I’m not even sure what “it” you’re talking about.
My point, in the plainest language possible: Stereotyping or making fun of a whole demographic (eg, hick jokes), or acting like you’re better than them because of a demographic you belong to, is a bad idea because, even if said demographic probably mostly won’t agree with you, some probably will, and you’re just shooting yourself in the foot by alienating them for no good reason.
For instance, we’ve got a number of awesome people here from Texas. But if we all just made mean jokes about Texans all the time, they would not want to hang out here and we’d lose the pleasure of their company.
Also mocking people like that is being a dick.
@cassandrasays – I’ll agree with you there. If we really wanted to be like the GOP, Florida would have been flooded with commercials saying “Paul Ryan is going to murder personally murder everyone over 65 with his bare hands!” the day after he was chosen as VP.
I do think that healthcare is one area where we could play up the horror stories of what happens when people don’t have coverage without feeling too much like we’re selling our souls to Karl Rove.
@Seraph – They did run Medicare and Social Security scare ads in Florida after Paul Ryan got the nod. And different liberal lobbying groups sent emails detailing all the awful stuff he supports. My poor mother about had a nervous breakdown; she was convinced that Paul Ryan was going to be the power behind the throne a la Dick Cheney.
Fair enough. It is ridiculous, and plenty of us in the red states agree.
I know. I did canvassing for McCaskill’s campaign all over SW Missouri, which was rather unpleasant at times. But even in an area like this, I do think attitudes are slowly changing and progressing. Maybe the Internet is making people less isolated and opening up more minds.
In all seriousness, does anyone have any ideas about how to counter the “ungodly” stuff? Because I feel like this is one of those areas where it takes someone within the in-group to know how to address people in a productive way, and my atheist tendency to go “what does that have to do with nationalized healthcare?”, while not unreasonable, isn’t going to be very helpful.
Yeah. That was badly worded. The first “it” is “writing off whole segments of the population”. It worked just fine for the GOP for thirty years, and it will work just fine for us now, since we have everybody but the GOP’s BFF demographic. Which is good, because I really don’t think we can win any significant numbers of them away from the party that tells them they’re the center of the universe.
The second “it” is “trying to appeal to conservative rural whites”, for the reasons I laid out in points 2 and 3.
All of which is why I avoid doing these things. You can check my history.
But I resent the false equivalence being drawn here, between obnoxious, classist liberals (who often get called out by their fellows) and an entire culture of scorn and hostility toward liberals and cityfolk in general. Not to mention the implication that the latter exists because of the former. It doesn’t. It gets along just fine on its own, and obnoxious liberals shutting up won’t change it.
I think the best tactic is by emphasizing how Jesus was about helping the poor. The story of the Good Samaritan was about helping someone out when they are suffering and in need, and I think it’s a good analogy for health care reform. I don’t think you’ll get people to denounce their religion, but you can show how the religion is compatible with progressive politics. Don’t let conservatives say they’re the moral ones. They’re the ones who are greedy and selfish, which goes against what Jesus taught.
@ Fitzy – Yes, but simply getting out the actual facts about what Ryan supports doesn’t measure up to proper GOP fearmongering, like, say “Death Panels”.
Thank you.
I hope so. I think that’s our best chance.
We could cultivate closer relationships with liberal evangelicals like Fred Clark (who, by the way, has been doing the Lord’s work in raising awareness about manufactured housing (trailers) and problems that arise when you own the trailer but rent the land), but since Fred is down with gay marriage they’ll fall back on No True Scotsman.
I think a lot of the problem is that the people we’d be trying to reach out to us think they’re following God’s word, and they believe in Hell and an eternal afterlife, and nothing we can say or offer can balance out the threat of being tortured for all eternity after they die. I think it would take a really brave person to cross the tribal boundary to us under these circumstances.
Problem is, they’ve worked up an answer for that. Supposedly, all of Jesus’s talk about helping the poor is explicitly about private charity, because that’s good for the giver’s soul, and he never meant for people to be forced to give their hard-earned money to a socialist government to redistribute to the lazy.
True, but they didn’t have to – what he wanted scared plenty of retirees (see my mom, above) without any further embellishment needed. 🙂
Note on the Good Samaritan, btw: there was a lot of bad blood between the Jews and the Samaritans. So what Jesus was saying in that parable was that even this hated racial foe, if he helped the injured and helpless, was more righteous than the respectable folk who walked past.
Oh, Ruby. Do tell me what they’re giving away, unlike Romney and his giving the keys to the vault to his rich friends. C’mon, I need some exquisite dipshittery today.
Of course, if some folks had their way, all mentions of such bleeding-heart subjects as charity would be airbrushed out of the picture like a disgraced Stalin-era apparatchik.
Inorite? It’s all “things” and “stuff” and before you know it all the old white rich people have started salivating like you’ve rung a bell. How could you have possibly anticipated their reaction?!
Seraph, I’m just getting way too strong a vibe of “they’ll never listen, so we might as well not even try” from everything you’re saying. There will always be some people who will listen; they may be a small proportion, but that’s how attitudes change, a little at a time. (Not that anyone is obligated to try to win over conservatives if they don’t want to.)
I pay taxes too. And I approve of my money going to help out folks in need.
And why should the wealthy and corporations be the ones to receive my money? I don’t think they fall under “folks in need”.
@eline – yep: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39516346/ns/us_news-life/t/no-pay-no-spray-firefighters-let-home-burn/#.UKWsVcWQOSo
The rightwingers who go that far (meaning eliminate police and fire fighters) are the edge and not high in numbers, but many of the others don’t seem to grasp that when they thunder about reducing government, this kind of service is exactly what they’re actually complaining about and threatening.
@drst
I have yet to meet a conservative who wasn’t a proponent of welfare queens, or seriously reduce the size and scope of the government. I can’t believe their followers eat that crap up.
That’s a great question. I really don’t have a good soundbite that sums that up. The closest I can think of is Harry S. Truman’s quote of “I wonder how many times you have to be hit on the head before you find out who’s hitting you?”. He was trying to warn people that it wasn’t the other they should fear, but the elites that intend to create an economic dictatorship.