Herbert: Tuning Out the G.O.P.'s Siren Song

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/06/opinion/06HERB.html

Maybe it's too much to hope for. But I wonder if we aren't watching the beginning of a decline in the effectiveness of the Republican Party's divide-and-conquer strategy.

For nearly half a century the G.O.P. has displayed an unparalleled mastery of the ugly art of devising campaigns that appeal to the very worst in us. It's always the whites against the blacks, the middle class against the poor, the conservatives against the hated liberals, with the word "liberal" spat out with the kind of disgust that's usually reserved for child molesters.

The party's at it again this year with talk of defacing the Constitution with its first discriminatory amendment, a ban on gay marriage.

But there are other currents moving through this election season that may tend to pull some diverse segments of the population closer together politically. For example, there are few things worse for a president seeking re-election than large numbers of jobless voters. Even in a state as solidly pro-Bush as South Carolina, the No. 1 issue on the minds of voters is a staggering loss of jobs.

Neal Thigpen, a political science professor at Francis Marion University in Florence, S.C., said he believes that President Bush will carry the state easily in the fall. But he told me: "I don't think Bush will do as well as he did four years ago. I think his stock is down a little. I'm not gonna kid you."

[cprise]

1. The voters may allow it

If that turns out to be the case, I'm outta here.

[stromboli]

2. jobless

California might not be locked up just yet. The tech industry has been losing jobs hand over fist to overseas contracts, and nothing cures voter apathy like losing work. Likewise, Bush's outright attack on gay marriage could spur a LOT of potential voters in the Progressive State to actually go to the polls. As in every other election, voter turnout is THE major factor, and the repubs are ignoring their own golden rule by giving people a REASON to vote.