Letters to the Editor: How Nixon’s ‘Southern strategy’ morphed into today’s MAGA base
To the editor: The Republican Party’s clear drift toward fascism, as detailed by Miles Taylor in his op-ed article, “The lasting threat is not the ‘next Trump,’ but the MAGA base,” was the inevitable byproduct of the GOP’s “Southern strategy,” as initiated by Richard Nixon in his successful 1968 campaign for president.
The dog-whistle appeal to white “Dixiecrats” (racists) after the passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 drove the conservative strategy. Thus began the politics of modern white resentment. Former President Trump and his acolytes simply milked all of this to achieve power.
The traditional Wall Street Republicans have reluctantly maintained this coalition for lower taxes and deregulation, believing they could control the beast — somewhat similar to Germany’s business elites who confidently assumed they could corral Adolf Hitler’s extremism. Gee, how did that work out?
History does indeed repeat itself — and when few seem to be paying attention.
Bob Teigan, Santa Susana
..
To the editor: Trump lost in 2020. Period. But I can understand why the Trump people have their suspicions about the election.
For many Republicans, it came down to this: Democratic lawmakers used the pandemic to change how citizens in many states vote for president. When you make a change that big and the election is relatively close, the loser is bound to be suspicious.
Now that the “new” system is in place and the voters have become used to it, the 2024 presidential election should go much more smoothly.
Mark Walker, Yorba Linda
..
To the editor: Taylor is correct in asserting there is a far deeper problem than the current election cycle.
There is a dark side to human nature. We seem to be predisposed to perceive threats, real or not, as things that somehow diminish us. Logic and common sense do little to change these beliefs.
One does not have to study Germany in the 1930s to reinforce this idea. In the Middle Ages, the Crusades are also prime examples of this behavior.
Why is this human impulse so prevalent? There seems to be no cure. Is self-destruction inevitable? Can I have my hot fudge sundae now?
Richard Kopelle, Los Angeles
..
To the editor: I found it disturbing to read in Taylor’s article the statement, “Tens of millions of people now believe conspiracy theories that are provably false, a realty that will shape the American political system in unknowable ways for many years to come.”
I saw the “60 Minutes” segment on the immense power of artificial intelligence to access the totality of human knowledge and use it to fashion intelligent, fact-based writing.
The developers of such AI capability should make a “truth app” that provides the probability that any given statement is true or false. This would be a totally unbiased result, independent of any politically based input. Such an app could be made available on everyone’s smartphone.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could be assured that statements by individuals running for office were true or false?
David Comings, Costa Mesa
