272: Big Tent
This episode appears to contain dynamically inserted ads. Transcript timestamps may be approximate.
A couple weeks ago I heard this show on the radio where they were trying to explain why most people in most elections prefer Republicans these days. And there was a writer named Thomas Frank on the show going around with this book that he just published about politics in Kansas. He was interested in why Kansasans would keep voting for Republicans at every level, even though Republican economic policies and social policies weren't doing much to help them. And he says, actually made their lives tougher in a lot of ways, hurt farmers, hurt the Kansas economy. The poorest county in the country went for President Bush with an 80% majority in the last election. Frank's argument, you may have heard him talk about this on that book tour, is that Republicans were getting people to vote against their own economic self-interest by appealing to their values on cultural issues, on abortion, on God. Though it's Frank and the other guests on this radio show on point said the other guest was going to monthly senior editor Jack Beatty. The Democrats haven't been very good for most Kansasans economic interests either. You know, it's hard to say that the people voting for the Republican party are all that wrong. I mean, neither party represents their interests, so they vote for the party that better represents their values, and that is the GOP. And it delivers, I mean, you know, gag rule on abortion internationally, stem cell research, abstinence-only programs in the schools and effort to appoint anti-choice judges. It delivers or tries to deliver on the values agenda, whereas the Democrats, I mean, look at Clinton, he gave the Midwest NAFTA, the China Health Deal, they didn't get health care. So it's hard to turn around to the people who've lost their livelihoods and say, you know, vote for us. We're in the party that will, well, what will we do? Well, we'll expose you to international competition, whereas the Republicans are going to do the same thing, but at least they're going to, you know, make noises on the culture war. Soon they got to callers. The first was this Republican voter who said that, of course, he wasn't just voting his pocketbook. That would be crude. Your commentator's points about their voting against their economic best interests, well, there's more to, there's more to, of concern to me than, you know, who's going to give me a tax break or who's going to build a factory in my town. I've got a lot of other interests that are important to me. This caller said that he disagreed with the Republicans on a bunch of things, but he said that one nice thing about the Republican Party is that it welcomes people who disagree with them on this particular issue or that particular issue. Whereas he said, Democrats, if you're pro-life, it doesn't feel like there's any place for you in the party. The next caller said the same thing, that there was no room in the Democratic Party for a diversity of views. If you even contemplate, even advocate, even restrictions on abortion, which even the majority of people of the United States would favor, there's no room for you in the Democratic Party. You won't be allowed to speak at the convention to advocate the idea that the state should decide when and when the what circumstances, abortions should be allowed. Of course, famously, in 1992, Pennsylvania's Democratic governor, Robert Casey, wasn't allowed to speak at his own party's convention because he was pro-life. Republicans control the House, they control the Senate, they control the White House, they have 28 of 50 governorships, they control the House and the Senate in 21 state houses, 7 out of 9 Supreme Court justices or Republican appointees, and they dominate the majority of federal appellate courts as well. They are on the march. Republicans are positioning themselves as America's majority party, and what that means is, though Democrats may find this surprising given the fact that blacks and Jews in Hispanics still vote mostly for Democrats, lots of people find the Republican Party to be more inclusive, more welcome, more accepting of divergent views. This is what Newt Gingrich was talking about just last week, when he declared that yes, there is a party of narrow-minded bigotry in this country. It's called the Democrats. He meant that the Democrats are the ones who demand that you fall into lockstep on abortion and affirmative action and all sorts of other political correctness besides. [MUSIC] Today on a radio show, Republicans on the march, the party is great at getting elected, and they do it very smartly by papering over the differences come election time. On today's program, though, we'll leave aside the official talking points that Republicans are saying everywhere until November, and ask Republicans to speak instead about what they actually believe, and what they want for the party and for the country. And it's way more complicated than you might think, not just Christians on the one side of the party fighting with moderates on the other. From W.B.E.C. Chicago, it's "This American Life" distributed by Public Radio International, I'm Ira Glass. Today on our radio show, Republicans, the Party of Inclusion, act one of our program, pink elephant, in that act, a Republican on what might seem like an ill-fated mission to win the hearts and minds of his fellow Republicans at their convention. Act two, write and writer. I've visited one of the many states where the Republican Party has been picking up strength to see how and why we spend some time with the Alabama Republican Party. Act three, indecent proposal. In that act, free market Republicans and this story about a rich guy who knows that every person has his price, and so he goes to his Republican co-workers with an offer of money, lots and lots of money, if they will dare to spend just one evening with him, doing an act that most Republicans would find utterly repulsive, namely, watching the Michael Moore film. Act four, it's my party. One of the most civil conversations that you will ever hear between one side of the party, that feels like it should be included, and the other, that feels that maybe it should not, stay with us. Act one, pink elephant. Patrick Al came to the Republican Convention this year on a mission that makes you wonder if he's in denial about the state of today's Republican Party, or if he knows a lot more about it than you do. I saw it as a great opportunity to sort of bring the inclusive log cabin message to the delegates that I happen to meet. The log cabin message is the message of gay Republicans. Log cabin, you may already know, is the name of the gay Republicans official national organization, and their inclusive message definitely had an uphill battle at this year's convention. Not only did the party adopt a platform calling for a constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage,
Transcription truncated.