At the heart of the Rovian calculus was America’s Southland, which he saw as the ideological and political base of the reshaped Republican Party of the age of Bush. But the very success of this strategy has been the party’s unmaking. It has also marked a complete betrayal of the founding values of the party of Lincoln and Frémont—an act of ultimate political cynicism. Full Story »
Posted by Kaizar Campwala
This is a new and insightful thesis -- that Karl Rove's clarion calls to the religious right and the Old Confederacy have led to the Republicans' undoing. Scott Horton's piece is supported with historical evidence and sound analysis, and makes a clever comparison to British politics. He could have been less harsh on the American South, though he's right to point out that it was well educated, middle- and upper-class Southerners who deferred to Barack Obama.
When are liberal commentators going to let up on the South? It is really frustrating to a Virginian to have the beautiful American South cast aside as a "backwater." I resent this narrow mindedness, especially when it comes from one of my favorite magazines.