Originally Posted by roachboy

the republicans have brand identity problem.
they have been using, officially or not, an identity-based language for a long time....one typically "is" conservative as a matter of disposition or essence and one is invited to fill in the viewpoints of the moment as a way of modulating that inner core. so the big shift has been from conservatism based on a resistance to change in the world to a conservatism based on resistance to change at the level of some imaginary inward essence or being. turns out that reality pulverized alot of the older statements that gave content to this essence before cowboy george arrived on stage...since then, they've adopted a position of NO. whatever it is, NO. this to maintain brand identity by maintaining a sense that despite everything conservatives are still a coherent discrete demographic. whence the tea baggers, whence their utility. they're bodies that can exploit the conservative-friendly media apparatus to get air time.

the democrats have never been able or willing to counter this retro-identity politics. so they play a different, diffuse game.

there are other, material explanations for why it is that conservative identity politics has been able to take hold. but the fact is that cultural power is a function of repetition and of repetition to set the terms of debate, to frame issues in and frame them out. what i think we're seeing is a conflict between systems of legitimation then...conservativespeak on the way out as a function of its obvious problems with describing the world compounded by the particular actions of the bush people...but no single alternative discourse is in a position to replace it. i mean, it's not like neoliberal-speak suddenly disappeared, though it should have.

fading empires look like this.


it's pretty straightforward, the explanation for the division in the land.