(...) In fact, Palin's speech reminded me of another one I attended, years ago, in Tehran during my time as CBC's Middle East correspondent.
Mohammed Khatami, the reformer, had been elected president of Iran, and you could taste the craving for change in the city's mountain air.
On a whim, I decided to attend a Friday sermon by Ayatollah Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, probably the most hardline cleric in the theocracy.
He scorned the reformers and called down divine judgment on them, and exhorted the crowd to go and impose the will of the people.
It was a speech filled with hatred and religious bigotry and nativism, and the crowd absorbed it with the same sort of ecstasy U.S. conservatives evidently experience at Republican rallies nowadays.
I spoke to several people as they exited the sermon; most were rural, uneducated, and were bused in for the event. In cosmopolitan Tehran, Yazdi wouldn't likely have been able to fill a big classroom, let alone pack in thousands of panting zealots.
(...)
But facts are irrelevant. The GOP campaign runs on the octane of emotion: resentment, anger, nativism and religious righteousness.
(Trump) is a man whose campaign has mostly consisted of slinging around coarse invectives at women, Latinos and Muslims, among others, in the name of battling "political correctness," which is some sort of obsession of the American right.
He is revered by the party base as a truth-teller. And he leads Republican polls.
Watching Palin and Trump, it was impossible not to wonder, once again, how America, a country that has achieved such excellence, and has so often shown the world a better way, descended into a political discourse that demonizes enlightened thought and glamorizes mean-spirited, lowbrow crudeness.
And something else occurred, a notion I've always shied away from because I find jingoism distasteful: None of this stuff would go anywhere in Canada. It would draw snickers and derision, not cheers.
The only reason I can cite for this difference in national attitudes is religion. Not the quiet, old-line religiosity whose adherents believe worship is a private matter, best practised in church.
I'm referring to the messianic, aggressive religion of certain evangelical Christian sects, which believe that even other streams of Christianity, never mind other faiths, are false, and that their job is not just to spread the word of God but to impose it, and that the best way to do that is to run the government.
That sort of religion happily ignores inconvenient facts and contradictions, and has always been ripe for the con job pulled by the Republican elite: promise to end atheistic permissiveness, then get into office and implement an economic agenda most friendly to Manhattan billionaires like Trump and multi-millionaires like Palin. (She recently put her 8,000 square-foot Arizona compound up for sale for $2.5 million.)
To be fair, this loopy form of religio-political fantasy is particular to the Republicans, and lots of religious Americans find it offensive to rational thought.
But it should not be dismissed, as clownish as its heroes can seem.
Think about Iran: Yazdi and his fellow hardliners triumphed. The reformers were shut down and jailed. The urban elites were cowed. It can happen.
Great post but I believe Cruz is the one with the most support amongst evangelicals.
Americans, especially poorer and less educated ones, feel absolutely screwed by the economy right now. The bigotry and intolerance (masquerading as impatience with "political correctness) is mostly due to economic fear of competing with immigrants for jobs, a sense that those on welfare have it better than the working poor and a backlash against rapidly changing mores about gay marriage, transgender people, police treatment of minorities, etc.
But you're right about the con job that the GOP establishment has pulled on the religious right. Kevin Phillips' "American Theocracy" touches on that.
The Palin Factor=> Trump Jumps 6 Points – Cruz Drops 6 Points Since Palin Endorsement
While the big story is the National Review article, it appears that (according to the Reuters 5 day rolling poll) over a third of Cruz’s followers have abandoned him for Trump in the last 3 days since Palin announced for Trump. That’s a pretty big story. Cruz has gone from 16.3% down to 10.5% while Trump has (in the same 3 days) gone from 33.4% to 40.6%.
Here is how the Reuters poll looked on January 19 – the day Sarah Palin endorsed Donald Trump.
And here is how the Reuters poll looked on Friday January 22.
Trump went up 6 points while Ted Cruz dropped six points.
(...) In fact, Palin's speech reminded me of another one I attended, years ago, in Tehran during my time as CBC's Middle East correspondent.
Mohammed Khatami, the reformer, had been elected president of Iran, and you could taste the craving for change in the city's mountain air.
On a whim, I decided to attend a Friday sermon by Ayatollah Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, probably the most hardline cleric in the theocracy.
He scorned the reformers and called down divine judgment on them, and exhorted the crowd to go and impose the will of the people.
It was a speech filled with hatred and religious bigotry and nativism, and the crowd absorbed it with the same sort of ecstasy U.S. conservatives evidently experience at Republican rallies nowadays.
I spoke to several people as they exited the sermon; most were rural, uneducated, and were bused in for the event. In cosmopolitan Tehran, Yazdi wouldn't likely have been able to fill a big classroom, let alone pack in thousands of panting zealots.
(...)
But facts are irrelevant. The GOP campaign runs on the octane of emotion: resentment, anger, nativism and religious righteousness.
(Trump) is a man whose campaign has mostly consisted of slinging around coarse invectives at women, Latinos and Muslims, among others, in the name of battling "political correctness," which is some sort of obsession of the American right.
He is revered by the party base as a truth-teller. And he leads Republican polls.
Watching Palin and Trump, it was impossible not to wonder, once again, how America, a country that has achieved such excellence, and has so often shown the world a better way, descended into a political discourse that demonizes enlightened thought and glamorizes mean-spirited, lowbrow crudeness.
And something else occurred, a notion I've always shied away from because I find jingoism distasteful: None of this stuff would go anywhere in Canada. It would draw snickers and derision, not cheers.
The only reason I can cite for this difference in national attitudes is religion. Not the quiet, old-line religiosity whose adherents believe worship is a private matter, best practised in church.
I'm referring to the messianic, aggressive religion of certain evangelical Christian sects, which believe that even other streams of Christianity, never mind other faiths, are false, and that their job is not just to spread the word of God but to impose it, and that the best way to do that is to run the government.
That sort of religion happily ignores inconvenient facts and contradictions, and has always been ripe for the con job pulled by the Republican elite: promise to end atheistic permissiveness, then get into office and implement an economic agenda most friendly to Manhattan billionaires like Trump and multi-millionaires like Palin. (She recently put her 8,000 square-foot Arizona compound up for sale for $2.5 million.)
To be fair, this loopy form of religio-political fantasy is particular to the Republicans, and lots of religious Americans find it offensive to rational thought.
But it should not be dismissed, as clownish as its heroes can seem.
Think about Iran: Yazdi and his fellow hardliners triumphed. The reformers were shut down and jailed. The urban elites were cowed. It can happen.
These guys are not buying into the Trump is racist narrative.
National Black Republican Association Endorses Donald J. Trump
Announcing National Black Republican Association Endorses Donald J. Trump By Frances Rice
We, the grassroots activists of the National Black Republican Association, are pleased to announce our endorsement of Donald J. Trump for President of the United States of America.
As citizens who happen to be black, we support Mr. Trump because he shares our values. We, like Mr. Trump, are fiscally conservative, steadfastly pro-life and believers in a small government that fosters freedom for individuals and businesses, so they can grow and become prosperous.
We are deeply concerned about illegal immigration, a major cause of high black unemployment, especially among black youth.
Black Americans across America are beginning to wake up and see clearly the reality of what is happening in black neighborhoods. Democrats have run black communities for the past 60 years and the socialist policies of the Democrats have turned those communities into economic and social wastelands, witness Detroit, Baltimore and South Chicago.
We believe that Mr. Trump has demonstrated that he can push back against the mainstream media, end political correctness and free black communities from the destructive grip of socialist Democrats.
We urge our fellow black Americans to seize control over their own destiny and leverage their vote the way other groups do. It is way past time black Americans stop having their vote taken for granted by Democrats, hold politicians accountable for the content of their policies and not vote merely based on the label of their party.
Its a moot point to the base, but I guess that you would have to get Trump in the first place to understand Trump in this sense.
He could answer the question either way and it have no effect on his base. It could have an effect on those still considering Trump, but not the base. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts to the base.
I can certainly see why the base likes him. He lies through his teeth, and when confronted with his obvious lies ends up denying he ever said it, and thus lying some more. But hey, the promises are full of superlatives and that tends to impress some.
Planting seeds: "My people are loyal (and will follow me to the end)."
Between Trump and Bernie, there's an obvious hunger for revolutionary change and a disdain for the S.O.S. We can all agree that the 'Great Experiment' is receiving its Last Rites. *Sigh* I just had to reincarnate for the Fall of Rome II. My karmic travel advisor assured me this wasn't going to happen.
The fall of Rome took a few centuries, so you're going to go through this several times, each time a worse version of the last...
Between Trump and Bernie, there's an obvious hunger for revolutionary change and a disdain for the S.O.S. We can all agree that the 'Great Experiment' is receiving its Last Rites. *Sigh* I just had to reincarnate for the Fall of Rome II. My karmic travel advisor assured me this wasn't going to happen.
Answering might actually alienate his base supporters. When the going gets 'tough', the 'tough' got nothing to say.
Its a moot point to the base, but I guess that you would have to get Trump in the first place to understand Trump in this sense.
He could answer the question either way and it have no effect on his base. It could have an effect on those still considering Trump, but not the base. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts to the base.
Its Chris 'got a thrill up my leg' Mathews for crying out loud. He's just begging for a gotcha sound bite and Trump ain't stupid enough to oblige. Nothing to see.
Answering might actually alienate his base supporters. When the going gets 'tough', the 'tough' got nothing to say.
Click below to see Trump become "politically correct" or not-quite-so-outspoken on a typical Tea Party topic...
Its Chris 'got a thrill up my leg' Mathews for crying out loud. He's just begging for a gotcha sound bite and Trump ain't stupid enough to oblige. Nothing to see.
You know that moment on an aircraft where there are three choices of main meal, and you've chosen the chicken and tomato pasta bake.
But by the time the cabin services person gets to your seat, you are told the bake has gone and all you can have is the tasteless salmon and dill or the irradiated, overcooked beef.
Yes, you're disappointed. But you are also immediately in a new mindset. The choice is no longer about what do I want the most. It's what do I mind the least.
The Republican Party establishment finds itself in that position now on the eve of the Iowa caucus.
The palatable, easy-to-digest candidates - a Marco Rubio, a Jeb Bush, even a John Kasich or Chris Christie - are not on the menu.
There is only so long that you can look at the polls and say one of them will break through to challenge the two insurgents, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.
As things stand, rather than the "moderates" getting together and trying to work out which of them has the best chance to face down Trump or Cruz, they seem to have formed themselves into a circular firing squad and are busy spraying each other with gunfire.
So it's hard to overstate the significance of what has been unfolding over the past few days. It is the grudging acceptance by significant parts of the Republican establishment that not only is Mr Trump the least worst option - he is virtually unstoppable in the race to be their candidate.
The conclusion they've reached is they can live with Mr Trump but they can't with Mr Cruz. Mr Trump will cut deals and compromise; Mr Cruz won't. Mr Trump is biddable; Mr Cruz is not.
