Showdown at the GOP Corral

Elephant getting restless.. Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

I had a decent blog topic for today, but current events have pushed that one out. Today I’d like to talk about current political events since they’ve taken some unusual turns..

Grand Old Party

In my long memory, the GOP never seemed much like the party of Lincoln.. black Americans have voted Democrat since at least the days of Franklin Roosevelt. Wealthy people and business men seemed to have the biggest lock on the Republican Party. Up until the mid-1960’s, the GOP was the gathering place of WASPy, protestant, middle-to-upper crust men. These were men most concerned about inheritance tax, capital gains and interest rates. These were pallid, fiduciary men -- not heated by the fires of race and religion. These pallid men I dub the GOP “patrician elite”.

LBJ SENDS RED MEAT THE GOP WAY

In 1965, LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act. While signing, he said as an aside, “There goes the South”. And he was right. Starting with the 1968 Presidential election, the “red meat” Southerners migrated over to the GOP, in droves. The migration was complete by 1972 when George McGovern’s liberal campaign suffered a huge, humiliating defeat. The GOP had acquired the Angry Southerner. While not adhering so much to Southern issues, the GOP Elite loved having the extra votes. What could they to do accommodate their newest party members and make them feel welcomed?

RED MEAT REPUBLICANS

Red meat Republicans and the Elite share a lot of similar views, but with entirely different emphasis. These are major care-abouts for the largely blue collar, lower middle class red meats:

1. Abortion / Planned Parenthood
2. Gay marriage / Gays in the military
3. Freedom of Religious Expression / Freedom to post the 10 Commandments
4. NRA / Right to bear arms including machine guns
5. Immigration
6. Low taxes

On this whole list, the only ones that grip the heart of a Yale Man are items 5 and 6. The others, not so much. On number 5, the red meats and elite are in direct conflict with each other.

THROW THEM A BONE

For 40 years, the elite have played on the emotions of the red meat.. Beware of gun-confiscating, lesbian, secular humanists! Listen to Jerry Falwell! Phony liberal bogeymen were summoned forth through all the years to scare blue collar people to the polls. Downplay anything that might be an actual conflict.. The fact that Walmart Stores and Gemcraft homes love the cheap labor of Mexican immigrants was kept hushed and subdued – like the drinking habits of a favorite uncle.

Truth be – Elite Republicans align more with Democrats in many ways. They think abortion is sad and regrettable, not necessarily immoral. They don’t celebrate in a Gay Pride event but avail themselves of gay catering and gay style sense. They worship in the Episcopal Church, but refrain from public proselyting – perceived as an exercise in tasteless yelling. The Elite might shoot skeet or fish, but they don’t have firearms as a major life factor or concern.

FRANKENSTEIN, ARISE!

This game has worked extremely well since 1972. In 2004, Howard Dean marveled at how a certain demographic (red meat) is primarily concerned with “Guns, Gays and God”. In so many ways, across so many days this strategy worked .. until international terrorism raised its ugly head. Suddenly the red meat contingent has a bone to pick with one of the bones it was thrown. They have a serious problem with immigration policy and are lining up behind the likes of Trump and Cruz. Trump and Cruz are the anti-Elite and frightening specters to anyone from the GOP Old Guard.

GOP CIVIL WAR

In truth, the GOP is two very different groups – it’s an awkward marriage of convenience. Bubba doesn’t care about derivatives or capital gains. He cares about the Three G’s above. Reginald from Yale doesn’t get any major upset from God, gays or guns. But he becomes excitable if we start talking about Visa expirations and deportation of illegals. What happens to the nanny, the yard crew and the H1B staff at the office? This blog author doesn’t know how it ends. It may be Credence Clearwater's Bad Moon Arisin’ – a storm of epic proportions yet to play out. This is what happens when you play with fire – it’s only remarkable that a fuse in this case took 50 years to ignite.

© 2015 Snillor Productions

Church of the Latter Day Steves

What's playing in the App Store?.. Picture courtesy of Apple

TODAY
We had a horrible, rainy Thanksgiving week. This weekend has been a pleasant repudiation of that. Its 55 degrees, under a bright blue sky. I’m a fool to be sitting in a coffee shop when I could be out frolicking in the sun. But this important blog awaits.. Today’s topic is one for Apple fans and foes alike.

APPLE TV 4

Last month, I gave myself the 4G Apple TV for a birthday present. It is a wonderful device – the first Apple TV upgrade that I’d describe as a “quantum” change. The remote control is beautiful just to look at. It incorporates a smooth new touch interface that you have to experience – you glide through the options without any loss of selection control. Siri can be summoned to tell you what’s on (although I prefer doing a text search). Best of all, Apple TV 4G offers an App store which has already expanded the channel offerings from @ 40 to over a thousand. And – we’re only in the 1st month since it came on the market. What might the Apple geniuses be coming out with next?

SINCE STEVE…

This brings me to the topic du jour – what would Steve Jobs think of 2015 Apple? ..Is he rolling in his grave, or is he giving a thumbs up? Steve Jobs was an uncontrollable perfectionist. He was said to have obsessed over the color of beige plastic on the Apple II computer. He likewise sweated the details over the marble texture in an Apple Store. He personally approved the boxes and packaging his expensive toys came in. He also weighed in heavily on Apple commercial content. The Land of Steve was a land of slavishly specific details. Overall, I think Steve would like the fact that Apple is riding high money-wise. The financial proof is in the pudding – he would have trouble arguing with “most valued company”. But he would surely have nits to pick and here they are a few, IMHO..

1) Matter of Size – Jobs derided “phablets” and giant phones. iPhone 5 was the perfect dimension for an adult hand, he speculated. Any wider would invite cramping and joint issues. He also touted the iPad 1 as a perfect magazine size. The Mini and Pro sizes would probably elicit his disdain. But – in our Goldilocks world it turns out that different folks glom to different sizes of things after all.

2) Stlyus and pens – Steve positively hated the stylus. Any prototype featuring a stylus would get hurled out the window. He laughed at Microsoft’s 2001 tablet precisely because it relied on a stylus. Alas, the stylus has crept its way back into Appledom. Steve is not smiling from wherever he sits.

3) Think Different – During the Reign of Steve, Apple was well outside of the box. Many items were game changers and we must just as well say out of the blue. Since 2011, everything saving the watch has been an iteration of what already is. Size, color and shape have all shifted but basics have not. Steve would probably be masterminding another 21st century sea change by now.

Could Steve possibly be wrong about anything? Well yes – he could. His board of directors had to tie him down and sedate him at the idea of iTunes for Windows. That turned out to be the main marketing ploy that turned the whole US onto iPods and iTunes. Steve wanted to file a major lawsuit against Google Android for stealing the iPhone interface. His team wisely talked him down from this – he would have lost and looked silly in the process.

Apple has had a few duds along the way – G4 Cube, .Mac, ROKR.. Even a wizard can occasionally cast the wrong spell. Steve was brilliant overall at matching genius people (Steve Wozniak, Jonathan Ive) to innovative projects. His wins were quite a few more than his losses and they changed our world at that.

Steve would probably exhort his team of “Latter Day Steves” to recast the 21st century ..how about 3D, holograph, floating displays or tactile conversation? We do have the talk of an Apple Car. Maybe the Latter Day Steves are on their assignment after all.

© 2015 Snillor Productions