In 1988, the Year of Dukakis, Rep. Peter Kostmayer (D-Penn.) told Congressional Quarterly that his party’s advice for liberal interest groups was, “Just shut up, gays, women, environmentalists. Just shut up, and you will get everything you want after the election. In the meantime, just shut up so we can win.” (They didn’t win.) These days, believes lefty pundit Amanda Marcotte, it’s the Republican establishment that’s trying to shush the party base…and the base doesn’t like it.
“Hiding their true motivations is the rule, not the exception, when it comes to the right,” wrote Marcotte in a Thursday column for Salon. “Conservatives will give you any reason under the sun for their views, except the real one…[But] increasingly, conservatives are rebelling, eager to say what they really think, even if it hurts them politically.”
For example, Marcotte argued, right-wingers “know full well that if they say, for instance, that hostility to abortion really is about female sexuality and not ‘life,’ then liberals will seize on that. Same story with voter ID laws. Admitting that it’s about keeping black people from voting would cost them political points and may even undermine the legal defenses in court…But while it’s liberal ears they are trying to keep the truth out of, ultimately the demands to hold your tongue and say something other than what’s actually in your heart are coming from Republicans.”
From Marcotte’s piece (bolding added):
“Politically correct” is a phrase conservatives use to demonize liberal efforts to stigmatize open expressions of bigotry. “It may not be politically correct to say so” is the phrase you usually hear right before someone says something overtly racist, sexist, or homophobic…
…For decades now, Republicans have benefitted by nurturing the conservative sense of victimhood, telling conservatives that, if it weren’t for those liberals and their political correctness, they could let loose with whatever vile opinion they secretly hold in their hearts…
…[H]iding their true motivations is the rule, not the exception, when it comes to the right. On issues ranging from voter ID laws to attacks on Planned Parenthood to the Benghazi posturing, conservatives will give you any reason under the sun for their views, except the real one…
…They know full well that if they say, for instance, that hostility to abortion really is about female sexuality and not “life”, then liberals will seize on that. Same story with voter ID laws. Admitting that it’s about keeping black people from voting would cost them political points and may even undermine the legal defenses in court. These admissions that the Benghazi hearings are partisan are being trumpeted by the Clinton campaign, as well. But while it’s liberal ears they are trying to keep the truth out of, ultimately the demands to hold your tongue and say something other than what’s actually in your heart are coming from Republicans. And increasingly, conservatives are rebelling, eager to say what they really think, even if it hurts them politically.
Donald Trump’s candidacy is by far the best example of this…
But you’re seeing this kind of leakage everywhere, as conservatives, fed up with their own leaders hinting that they keep it in, are letting ‘er rip…
…[W]hite supremacists are increasingly pushing back against conservative efforts to silence them. One especially telling example from this week: The former head of the Arizona Republican Party, Randy Pullen, took to Twitter to argue that the government should “take guns away from blacks as they are the main killers.”
It’s definitely not liberals who want people like Pullen [and Trump] to shut up. Liberals, by and large, can’t wait for some conservative to say something outrageous so they can all share it on Facebook. No, the pressure to be “politically correct” comes mostly from Republicans, and so the nose-thumbing is increasingly aimed in their direction…
…Increasingly, Republican politics isn’t about winning elections or getting things done, but seen as a vehicle for individual self-expression. That’s one reason Trump is winning in the polls.
