The GOP's Faustian Bargains and the Political Depression of 2013

by Irene Daniel

In the past 40 years, the Republican Party has undergone something of a metamorphosis, and the party that once liked Ike has been supplanted with a party that now hates all things Obama. This transformation of the last five decades has been a journey of curves and pivots that few could have predicted in 1960. For prior to the Civil Rights legislation in the mid-1960s, the composition of the nation’s two major parties was quite different; and in some respects the exact reverse of what they are now. This shift is largely the result of several Faustian bargains the GOP leadership has made along the way.

During the mid-20^th century, tension was mounting in the Democratic Party between the old southern Dixiecrats – chock full of long-time white supremacists, and the younger progressives such as John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey. The Republican Party was then the party of the non-bigots, although they were not exactly championing Civil Rights the way some Democrats were, especially Johnson as Senate Majority Leader in the 1950s.

So, when the Democratic Party, with Republican support lead by then-Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirkson, championed the hallmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it caused major upheavals in the once solid Democratic south, and old Dixie abandoned its Democratic home. Some of the old Dixiecrats ran as 3^rd Party candidates, e.g., George Wallace in the Presidential Election of 1968; and most eventually ended up in the Republican Party.

This shift created an opportunity for Republicans in 1968, which has long been known in political circles as ‘the southern strategy.’ After their 1968 convention left the Democratic Party appearing headless and reckless, the GOP polished itself off and presented itself as the “law and order” party; subtly appealing to those working class whites who saw LBJ’s Great Society as a huge give-away to “the other”: ethnic minorities, women and the poor. And so the Republican Party now became the champion of states’ rights and individual rights, combatting the evils of a socialist handout. And this was their first Faustian bargain.

The next deal with the devil came in 1980 with the Reagan Revolution, declaring government itself to be the problem; and began to convince the upper wealth classes that they shouldn’t have to do without a new car so that somebody living in some slum somewhere can have an education, or a meal, or a home, or an opportunity. The support of Evangelical Christians provided religious cover for prioritizing the subsidizing of wealth over the investment in children living in poverty in the USA. This new wing of the party built upon the message of the so-called ‘moral majority,’ which in reality was neither moral, nor a majority of Americans; but they had a loud and seemingly ‘moral’ message that was just a new spin on the further demonization of “the other.”

This Faustian bargain, which ushered in the age of Reaganomics, many economists now believe to be the root cause of the Great Recession of 2008. It is unarguable that those who have benefitted the most from Reaganomics are those who were already wealthy to begin with. And those at the bottom rungs of the economic ladder have made little or no progress as a whole, and have seen subsidies that once funded basic necessities, as well as opportunities for advancement, dwindle or disappear completely; opportunities such as those provided by the Great Society.

The George W. Bush era began with the greatest Faustian bargain of them all: the stolen election of 2000. Let’s face it, only nine votes counted in that election. If you were not on the Supreme Court in the fall of 2000, your vote did not matter. An administration beginning with such a Machiavellian disregard of the very Constitution that created it could not end well. 

The Bush II era also reverted to the failed Reaganomics of the past; even emulating this Republican icon in claiming to be anti-government while racking up the debt of two unnecessary wars, as well as funding a pork-fest in Congress. The unbridled greed unleashed by Bush II and his cronies made the Reagan years look Amish in comparison.

The election of the nation’s first non-white male to the Presidency of the United States in the 21^st century stunned the GOP of the last century, and they have been struggling, not to catch up with the rest of us, but to take us back to 1980, ever since. They lament that they have been sold-out somehow. They had money on their side, they had Jesus on their side, and they had most of the white people on their side. How could they lose?

Time and math are not friends to the Republican Party today. Social mores, and especially demographics, are changing rapidly and shifting toward the political left. The staple conservative older white male is daily succumbing to our human mortality, and the new demographics are not attracted to a predominantly white, predominantly male, predominantly heterosexual message that resonated fifty years ago.

The largest growing demographics in the nation today are women, Latinos and millennials. Whether you are selling shoes, doughnuts or insurance policies; this is your target market. The Faustian deal with Evangelicals is now an obstacle for attracting women, as well as LGBTs, with their homophobic rhetoric. Most women, especially those under the age of 50, are not likely to empower those who make light of their personal and reproductive rights.

Latinos are overwhelmingly turned off by the subtle, yet constant, racist assaults on their own tribe, as well as the GOP hardline stance on immigration issues. And millennials have a world view that is much more inclusive and less xenophobic than previous generations. Moreover, most of them have had community service in their curriculum somewhere, and have a broader understanding of community that lends itself much more readily to a Democratic message that prioritizes a common-wealth over shrewd and competitive individuality.

The southern strategy, Reaganomics and Evangelical judgment cannot appeal to the new demographics. This is not ideology, it’s just math. The racism, greed and false sense of moral superiority that delivered GOP victories in the past, cannot do so with 21^st century Americans.

What escapes GOP logic of late, is that all debts come due. Faustian bargains come at a very high price in the long run; and Faust himself just handed the GOP the check.