Listen to the silence of Republican leaders across the country to Senator Tuberville’s rallying cry. Or, when they’re cornered, watch them diminish the significance of what was said without diluting the clear signal to MAGA voters that this is their party. (Since 2016, Republicans have become well practiced at shrugging off ignorant, racist, xenophobic derision from within their ranks.) And no matter what they say, it won’t make one whit of difference in their endorsements. Come what may, Republican leaders will embrace as allies public officials and candidates who articulate views that (only a short time ago) were condemned by the GOP as repugnant. If these leaders succeed in their rhetorical hustle, their words won’t discourage white supremacists and anti-Semites from voting Republican. The party can't win without these votes.
In this morning's Los Angeles Times (in a review of the research of two political scientists, Lynn Vavreck and John Sides, on the 2012, 2016, and 2020 presidential elections), David Lauter notes that both the Democratic and Republican parties are locked-in to their respective positions. The stakes are high. The country is so closely divided that either side might win. Neither party has an incentive to budge an inch.
This all or nothing conflict explains the dynamics of the Georgia Senate race. One candidate has demonstrated, again and again, his unfitness for the job or for any public office. Revelation after revelation about the candidate’s past has revealed a life destructive to the people closest to him. This candidate has made choices that are antithetical to the positions that his party espouses. Herschel Walker has run from responsibility and from the truth at every turn. Yet Republicans cling to him so tightly that he may well pound out a victory.
The research Lauter describes served to identify what actually moves partisan voters. The approach was simple: During the 2019-2020 cycle, researchers interviewed 6,000 voters each week (for a total of 500,000 interviews) on their views.
Rather than only asking voters which position they favored on major issues, the Nationscape poll gave them alternative scenarios involving a mix of different issue outcomes and asked respondents which they preferred. If they had to choose between a scenario that included a minimum wage increase to $15 an hour or one with a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, for example, which would take precedence?
The conclusions of the study were dispiriting. The researchers found that “very few issues truly matter to voters as much as the splits over race, immigration and identity that divide Americans.” That’s the bottom line dividing the two parties: Race, immigration, identity.
That’s what’s behind Tommy Tuberville’s angry, sneering remarks. That’s the glue that binds the Republican leadership to Herschel Walker and Tommy Tuberville (and what has grown into a legion of Trumpian wannabes). The two parties are divided by clashing worldviews. Democrats envisage a broad, inclusive America -- a rainbow coalition. Republicans, who take refuge in nostalgic conceptions of the past, are pushing back furiously against the Democratic vision.