Trump or Cruz? What are people thinking?
So at this point, it appears that either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz are going to get the nomination for president. Moreover, tens of thousands of people cheer wildly while either of these men make the most outrageously bigoted, or false statements.
The talking heads like to say that these two candidates are attracting so many followers because people are tired of the way Washington operates, and while this is probably in small part true, I think there are far more devious factors at work at the phenomenon we are now witnessing.
It does not destroy the culture if people like Trump or Cruz spout craziness from the podium. It is those cheering tens of thousands that frighten me the most, those who are being made to respond as they are currently responding because they now feel that they have permission to express their darkest bigotries and hatreds without the fear of social ostricization. Years of resentment are being dumped out of people's souls, and people like Trump and Cruz are smart enough to be able to benefit from it.
However Trump and Cruz are just exploiting the ground that has been so well laid out for them by years of the indoctrination of the American People by the Republican Party. It is so obvious to me that the Republican Party has been using brainwashing techniques to get people to vote for them. They have been doing this for decades. They have used the ingrained bigotry that is so prevalent in our society. In addition to good old fashioned racial discrimination, there is great resentment among certain white middle class types that the various measures that have been put into place to assure equality for various minorities. Many of these people see these measures as having destroyed their economic and social well-being.
The Republican Party has been using these tactics since the days of Richard Nixon. In those days they used to call it The Southern Strategy. But they have done their work so well, that now members of the establishment Republicans are frightened that those they have sought as supporters, have turned into a mob of monsters. I am reminded of the incident that occurred during the one of the 2008 Republican Debates. A soldier, who was at that time serving in an active zone, shared to the assembled crowd of Republicans that he was gay. Without any consideration of the service he was giving to his country, the crowed booed. I was reminded of a scene from Orwell's 1984. In the scene, a film was shown of a boat filled with “enemies” was torpedoed, and the survivors were show sinking to their deaths. The audience was being monitored for “face crime”, and whatever horror they may have felt, they were required to cheer as the enemy suffered.
Is that what our country is becoming?