I've said it before and I'll say it again here: the Republican party, and conservative movement in general, has to be commended for accomplishing what people in power have been trying to figure out for all of human history: how the rich can get the poor to support them.
And as it turns out, it's rather simple. First, play to their fears. Tell them that their fears, no matter how irrational or couched in ignorance, are real, and that they will fight tirelessly to protect them from those fears. "All we have to fear is fear itself"... ah, how far we've come.
Second, invent new ones. Make sure those fears are of the people who would help the poor and marginalized. Your opponents, essentially.
Third, support the economic policies of the rich to garner support and political power. Repeat as necessary.
The conservatives have always had the money, and liberals, the poor. Only at some point, through some incredibly crafty and, frankly, genius theater, the right managed to grab the poor too. Not by making them less poor. By keeping them poor, and scared of the bogeyman, and telling them only they have the anti-bogeyman ointment.
you have to applaud it, as you die a little inside.
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