The Politics of Resentment - II

A follow-up of sorts to my earlier post about the politics of resentment, with this post from Huffingtonpost.

McCain-Palin = Nixon-Agnew, With Some Buchanan For Seasoning
John McCain and Sarah Palin are tapping into the angry, conservative, anti-government populist tradition represented in recent years by politicians ranging from George Wallace to Richard Nixon to Spiro Agnew to Pat Buchanan.

...

Robert Shrum, a Democratic consultant, had a different take. "Swiftboating is back, but now it's not disguised by a 527 [a third party independent group]. The keynoter [Rudy Giuliani] and VP nominee [Palin] are doing it," Shrum said. "The rawest attacks are coming from the podium. This is really personal, the anger and resentment toward Obama."

The following paras are further exposition of what this video demonstrates about the way Faux News has portrayed Democratic candidates (Kerry then and Obama now); not that I expected anything different from a channel that had this discussion)

The fury at the press; the resentment of 'elites,' especially 'liberal' and 'Washington' elites; the denunciation of Democratic leaders as too timid in a dangerous world, presented in colorful and sometimes powerful language - all of this goes back to 1968 and 1972, when the Republican Party first tapped into a stratum of national discontent in the aftermath of the civil rights movement, rising rates of crime, a new and aggressive feminism, and a massive anti-war movement. The Nixon landslide of 1972, and the subsequent decades of conservative domination of American politics, demonstrated the power of conservative, race-tinged populism.

It has been a long time, however, since the dreaded "Washington liberal elite" has been in a position to impose an agenda on the American people. Republicans have controlled the White House for five of the last seven administrations. Nonetheless, this election appears to have become a testing ground for the viability of this core Republican strategy.

Lot more interesting stuff in the article...will not cut-n-paste everything here. Go read it if you have the time. (Am assuming someone is reading this blog and has read this post right till the end, I guess!)