A Tsunami of Filth

We are in for a an awful Presidential campaign, a tsunami of filth.

By now even obscure political panels on TV have worked out the Republican strategy. The Republicans have decided their best shot at winning the Presidency in 2012 is to suppress the minority vote. In a majority of states, the Republicans have passed laws to disenfranchise black people, poor people and Latinos. They claim that the laws protect us against voter fraud, but in fact the states in which these laws were passed have had no voter fraud.

The second step in the strategy is to ramp up voters who are white, male, racist, ignorant and old. This cohort is a minority, but a racist campaign will get every one of them to the polls, particularly if the Republicans throw in a denunciation of gays, unions and women's health and reproductive programs.

A strategy of attacking the majority is risky, but it might work in 2012. Obviously it won't work over the long run, because young people don't share all the hatreds and fears of the old. But by 2016 or 2020, the Republicans will find a new strategy. The Wall Street motto is: Whatever works.