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Health & Fitness

What Republican Class Warfare Looks Like

The current Republican Class Warfare GOP debate between Gingrich and Romney, is much like the 1964 election with being labeled a Country Club Rockefeller Republican or RINO.

In years of watching politics, this is the first time since the 1960s that I have seen Republicans so clearly promoting class warfare. 

If you have kept up with the current GOP debates, the GOP candidates have attacked one another on how they made their money.  From Gingrich as a consultant with Freddie Mac to Romney with Bain Capital, a private equity firm where he paid less than 15% in capital gains and carry taxes

This reminded me of another time in US history when Republicans used the idea of class warfare.  In 1964, Nelson Rockefeller ran against Barry Goldwater for the GOP nomination.  If you support fiscal Conservatism, you are wealthy and believe in liberal individual freedom on abortion and other social issues; then you were labeled a Country Club Rockefeller Republican in 1964. 

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Today, Nelson Rockefeller would been called a RINO. 

With the 2012 election, Romney has been labeled the modern Country Club Rockefeller Republican.  Romney, the son of a Michigan Governor, graduated from BYU and Harvard.  Compared to Gingrich that was born in Pennsylvania by a teenage mother and adopted by a soldier stepfather. Newt taught history after graduating from Emory University, before going into politics in 1978. 

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So the Republican nominees are using the old warfare of the small town New Money nominee versus the big city Old Money theme, much like the 1964 election.  Americans do seems to root for the underdog story of rags to riches, like in the movies.

Some in the GOP still support the idea of Horatio Alger’s American Exceptionalism or the American Dream of New Money riches over the Old Money WASP wealthy, since the 1870s. 

When it comes to rags to riches New Money entrepreneurs, some Americans trust New Money more than inherited Old Money entrepreneurs.  One reason maybe that New Money started on the bottom of the economic hierarchy and knows what people have to endure to move up.  This perspective gives some Americans the ideal that New Money is the outsiders in politics and better trusted, but why are they trusted more? 

An example of this trusted New Money outsider over the established Old Money wealth was portrayed during the 2008 Republican run for presidency, with the two outside mavericks:  McCain and Palin. 

McCain has been in politics since 1982 and some Americans see him as a RINO that is willing to compromise with Democrats to get things done in D.C.. Yet Palin started out as a New Money outsider, but after years of book-bus tours, speeches, and working with Fox News; Palin has quickly moved to becoming an insider of the D.C. Establishment.  Some Americans still seek Palin for advice and motivation, but when anyone new in the GOP goes to D.C., they soon become part of the Establishment status quo.  This is the way with all political parties in history, yet some Americans still want to trust New Money outsiders to change that status quo.

With the 2012 election, the GOP again has picked up on the theme of the Outsider versus the Establishment with Gingrich and Romney.  The language of the candidates sounds much like Democrats Class Warfare and the election of 1964.  Terms like Romney not paying enough of his taxes, working for a private equity firm that buys companies that cuts jobs, sell assets, and puts debt on their subsidiary that later goes bankrupt like Dade International; which makes some doubt if Romney will do the same thing as president.

If Gingrich is portraying Romney as a Country Club Rockefeller Republican that inherited his money, then Newt must be the opposite:  a small town outsider that worked three times as hard to make his money, compared to the inherited money of a Yale grad.  Sounds like Republican Class Warfare to me.

When it comes to Class Warfare, Americans questioned how capitalism worked in the 1930s during the Great Depression.  Now Americans question capitalism through the Tea Party and Occupy movements, because of the rise of the silent Centrist Middle Party that we hear about every election:  The Undecided, the Independents, and the Swing Voters.  This Centrist Middle Party has to pick one party out of two every election because their lack influence and their own third party in politics.  The Centrist are now questioning again how capitalism is practiced beyond theories on paper for their future and the GOP. 

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