Countdown: Markos Moulitsas on the Birther's Southern Demographic
By Heather Saturday Aug 01, 2009 8:00am
Richard Wolffe talks to Markos Moulitsas about the recent poll from Research 2000 for Daily Kos showing that the Republicans have a real problem with their southern base.
Wolffe: We're going to get to your poll in a minute, but I wanted to ask what you think the political calculation is for Cantor as he distances himself from the birthers, and then bashes those who challenge the birthers.
Moulistas: Well I think most people would recognize, even Republicans, that there's a certain percentage of the Republican base that's a little off, that's a little crazy. I just think they didn't want anybody to know it's half of them. I mean, you know, that's crazy, so it's a problem for them because what they're realizing is that they are a southern regional rump party, that their leadership is heavily based in the south, and the rest of the country is sort of looking at them and wondering "What the heck is going on down there?".
Wolffe: So do you think now we're at a point where Cantor or maybe a certain segment of the GOP want the whole birther thing to go away now? Is that what's happening?
Moulistas: Oh, absolutely. I mean for a while it, you know, as long as nobody knows about it, then they could sort of feed it. They could introduce legislation in the Congress quietly to sort of appease this rabid, radical right. But suddenly now this is a national story because it's getting credence. You have Lou Dobbs on CNN making it his personal crusade. You have Fox News obviously pushing this very heavily, talk radio. And you're starting to realize that you have Republicans are going on campaign swings and they're going on television and they're doing interviews, and they're being asked about Obama's birth certificate. And it's really not the kind of thing they want to be asked about. It's not the kind of thing they want to encourage.
They go on to discuss the racial element behind the birther movement and the lack of moderate Republicans left in the party and how being forced to cater to their crazy base is going to hurt them nationally.
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This is largely a matter of exposure. The state of Georgia has a radio station in every Hamlet spewing out Limbaugh, Hannity and the other voices of republi-kkk-an leadership. There is not a single station in the entire state that carries Air America, or Ed Scultz or any other progressive voices. Why doesn't some rich progressive invest in a high powered voice of reason on the air in Atlanta or Macon? You might suspect that it would lose money, but maybe not - if all the people in Georgia who are NOT republi-kkk-an racists tune in it could be a huge audience!
We have had a party or sub-party based on Southern whites since before The War (1861-1865). After LBJ, it moved from being part of the Democratic Party to being part of the Republican Party. The Republican Party being weaker than the Democrats, they cannibalized it and formed the US's first large mass ideological party (unless you count the Klan). This party has everything but a rational strategy -- goons and thugs, affiliated media and think tanks, a quasi-religious ideology, and, of course, the Big Lie.
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