yeah. the twin traumas of those two crises is part of what i think forms the legacy of the breakdown in kind of institutional norms. bruce, the other way that people talk about this is the way that a combination of the big one in 2010 and the way to shape the way districts are controlled at the state level, gerrymandering and democratic divide between the house of caucus and the rest of american where the house of caucus that want the strategy don t look like the constituents that went to the poll to elect barack obama. they re right. one thing i want to add to what mike said is there are deeply historical forces at work here. we talk about republicans taking over the south but actually it s the other way around and the politics of the republican party today can best be understood as the politics of the southern
necessary, constitutional, legal, illegal, whatever it took to fight the desegregation of the public schools. and that, in that sense, the republican politics of today are the same as the politics of the southern democrats of the 1950s. rejectionism, economist bruce bartley, former staffer mike lofgren. we sent producers out in the field today to find out how people were doing. a report is coming up. [ rob ] our daughter is all kate. they have the same walk. same grin. and the same beautiful hair. [ female announcer ] with nice n easy, get the most natural shade of you. in one step, colorblend formula gives expert highlights and lowlights. for color so true to you, they may think you were born with it.
neoconfederate party that seems dedicated to all kinds of apocalyptic outcomes. i don t know if this comes from their fundamentalist religious outlook for whether it s just good fund-raising for them among their base, but they are no longer a normal political party. they are an insurrectionist party that is bringing down the government. okay. no longer a normal political party. i have heard a lot of commentators say this. i want to play devil as advocate and check my own biasses here, bruce. we had more shutdowns between tip o neill and the democratic congress and reagan than we have now and there s some who argue a system like we have invest minority parties with a lot of power and so this is a natural system. what do you think of that? well, that s certainly true up to a point. but i think what we re really seeing here is a crisis of
democrats. now, don t misunderstand me. i m not saying that this is a racial matter. i m just saying that the nature of the politics is the same and i ve been thinking a lot the last two days about a term that you re probably familiar with called massive resistance, which was a term that was used in the 1950s to people who opposed the brown versus bored of education decision and used any means necessary, constitutional, legal, illegal, whatever it took to fight the desegregation of the public schools. and that, in that sense, the republican politics of today are the same as the politics of the southern democrats of the 1950s. rejectionism, economist bruce bartley, former staffer mike lofgren. we sent producers out in the field today to find out how
the politics of the southern democrats. now, don t misunderstand me. i m not saying that this is a racial matter. i m just saying that the nature of the politics is the same and i ve been thinking a lot the last two days about a term that you re probably familiar with called massive resistance, which was a term that was used in the 1950s to people who opposed the brown versus bored of education decision and used any means necessary, constitutional, legal, illegal, whatever it took to fight the desegregation of the public schools. and that, in that sense, the republican politics of today are the same as the politics of the southern democrats of the 1950s. rejectionism, economist bruce bartley, former staffer mike lofgren. we sent producers out in the field today to find out how people were doing.