Will "hillbilly paranoia" doom the GOP?

Take it away Drew Magary.

"A few weeks back, I was watching a documentary about the Ku Klux Klan, because I will watch pretty much anything that’s about the KKK, serial killers, or Hitler. And the reason that the KKK eventually faded out of the American mainstream was not only because they were a legitimate terrorist organization, but because they were so needlessly VISIBLE. People in the KKK quickly realized that there wasn’t much advantage to parading around in hoods and inviting massive public scrutiny when they could simply wear plain clothes, spend the rest of their lives being quietly racist, and get away with it. And so the KKK became a punchline while real racism took on a subtler but no less effective guise, a guise that lingers to this day.

Donald Trump is not a subtle man. The only surprising thing about Donald Trump’s announcement yesterday—in which he demanded a magical anti-Muslim forcefield established around the American border—is that he didn’t make the announcement months ago. After all, keeping out dirty FURRINERS, or even Americans who kinda LOOK like dirty FURRINERS—has long been the centerpiece of Trump’s campaign platform. This is not a man who disguises his intentions, and that has earned him a fervent and devoted following from Americans who pride themselves on being just as blunt about their beliefs as he is…“We need to get the Muslims out of the country, before they start killing our families!”

 

Make no mistake: There’s a fairly sizable portion of the American electorate that supports that take, and you can go a long way in this country by courting them, in subtle ways if you prefer. Donald Trump isn’t stupid. He knows that keeping American citizens out of the country solely for their religious beliefs is neither Constitutional nor practical. But he knows what works. He knows there’s a solid voting bloc out there cheering him on to up the stakes every successive week, and they won’t desert him. He’s only gonna get crazier from here.

 

And you know what? I’m still rooting for him to win the nomination. I’m rooting for his candidacy like I used to root for mass chaos in college football's Bowl Championship Series. I want him to sweep the primaries and make a porn star his veep and get a primo convention slot that results in mass chaos and lots of urgent backstage maneuvering to kick him out of the party. I don’t want him to branch off and run as an independent. I want him to be VISIBLE. I want him to be the standard bearer. Filthy rich GOP donors know that a Trump nomination would essentially doom their party, and that’s exactly what those fuckers deserve, now and forever.

 

Because if you think the prospect of Trump’s leadership is terrifying, I have bad news for you: You already have MANY elected leaders who are just as bad, if not fucking worse. Like Texas congressman Louis Gohmert. Or New York loony toon Peter King. Or any number of Tea Party members who have won by exploiting the same kind of hillbilly paranoia that Trump is currently whipping into a froth. Trump’s great sin is that he is so terribly PUBLIC with his courtship, while the rest of GOP has quietly dined out on these people for ages now.

 

It’s way past due for this scam to be blown wide open. This is the braying, gullible 20 percent of the American population that has stonewalled a great deal of our progress and DESERVES to be left behind, in the dust. In a lot of Trump thinkpieces (like mine!), you’ll see writers attribute the Trump phenomenon to anger. “Say what you will, these people are angry!” And today, more than ever, I could give half a shit about that anger. Are you angry America isn’t what it used to be? EAT SHIT. I don’t care that you’re mad it’s not 1951. I don't care that an immigrant coder stole your job at the wagon factory. I don’t care that your only solution for your plight is to SEETHE about it. I don’t care that your American ideal is booting out half the population while arming yourselves to the teeth. The sooner you people die off and have your political influence quashed, the better. You deserve to have your political movement burst into flames in front of a live television audience. You deserve to blindly follow your idiot pied piper into oblivion."

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Go on and drop the mic young fellow.

 

Can you say brokered convention boys and girls? *fingers crossed*

 

*Pic from newsweek.com