Channel72 wrote:Darth Wong wrote:This itself seems like a strawman. Nowhere did Stewart say that any particular "new demographic" must be defined by race. He simply used race as an example of previous new groups which were shunned and accused of causing moral decay and economic ruin. In the past, it was the Irish ("lazy, criminal, drunkards, religious fanatics"), the Jews ("greedy, dishonest, untrustworthy"), and they always manufacture reasons why this group is dangerous and is leading to the downfall of society. Today it's gays and anyone else who doesn't follow "traditional morality", by which they mean "sexual norms".
The rationale keeps changing, but the basic mindset is the same: "it's different from us, so let's manufacture excuses to say that it will ruin society and must be eliminated".
Stewart's bit likely took a cue from O'Reilly's sulking about "white Christian America" being in decline, but it seems the larger issue that conservatives are concerned about is a pan-demographic shift towards liberalism. In the past, allegations of moral decay were associated with an influx of new immigrants, like Irish or Jews, whereas now the accusations of moral decay are not particularly associated with any new demographic (except homosexuals).
Right, and that's the point: the true enemy of conservatism has always been
change. Whether that change is associated with a particular ethnicity or not is almost beside the point, although it's extremely convenient for conservatives if such a connection can be drawn, since it allows for easier identification of The Enemy.
Conservatives complain about Latino immigrants stealing American jobs, not causing moral decay. Rather, the moral decay is associated with an overall social shift towards a more progressive, less judgmental attitude, with less emphasis on Christianity.
They complain about both. They believe that Latino immigrants are immoral because they do not respect American laws, and that their crusade against Latino immigrants is in fact based on important moral principles. They believe this Latino immigrant horde is a pack of "leeches" who are taking advantage of American largesse without giving back. Their language is absolutely chock full of moralizing, as it always is when they look for excuses to marginalize a group that they don't like.
The ironic thing, of course, is that today's Hispanic immigrants actually tend to be religious conservatives, but the GOP has so far been too stupid to capitalize on it.
The GOP would have trouble capitalizing on it even if they tried. Hispanics are Catholic, and while a lot of prosperous white American Catholics have gone along with the Ayn Rand Revolution in conservative politics, the Catholic Church at large is still pushing a much more socialistic attitude. They do get a lot of mileage from anti-abortion and homophobia, but not enough to erase the rather strong impression that they're just a bunch of self-satisfied and privileged old white male pricks who want to keep everyone else down.
