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If you want to generalize across multiple election, GOP shifts their focus to the "values and cultural issues" of the moment, to get working-class Americans to
by breadwinner 2y ago
If you want to generalize across multiple election, GOP shifts their focus to the "values and cultural issues" of the moment, to get working-class Americans to vote against their own self-interest.
In the past, it was gay marriage and abortion; today, it's trans kids and DEI. Once these issues dominate the conversation, little attention is paid to the real priorities and actions of GOP and the Billionaires that bankroll them: cutting funds to Medicaid, food stamps and other welfare programs, cuts to health insurance subsidies, cuts to education, cuts to medical research funding, cuts to development assistance to the poorest in the world and so on, all to fund tax cuts for the wealthy.
- s1artibartfast 2y agoI think that's a one-way analysis excluding the Democrats, who also pivot to these issues. Democrats have agency as well, and the ability to prioritize bread and butter issues over things like DEI or trans issues. I think their self-image as defenders of the vulnerable binds them to positions that are generally unpopular, and the GOP exploits this. I think both parties suffer from a form of oppositional defiant disorder, where they have to stake out opposite claims. If one party says the sky is blue, the other has to disagree.
- breadwinner 2y agoYou are absolutely right, engaging GOP on these topics plays into their hands, and this is the Democratic party's key mistake.