Years ago, Democrats were the party of the middle class while Republicans were the party of the elite. Poor and working-class voters largely backed Democrats because they spoke the language of blue-collar workers in this country. As the priorities of the Democratic Party shifted away from the kitchen table issues impacting rust belt voters and toward the topics batted around faculty lounges at Ivey League universities, working-class Democrats began to feel like a voter without a home.
I hope Erick is right. My sense is that Democrats will run on infanticide (abortion) and against MAGA Republicans -no matter who the Republican candidate is. MAGA stands for "boogeyman" to Democrats because they have never defined it. It is the same way they throw out the word "racist". But the working definition for both MAGA and Racist is, "Anyone who doesn't agree with the Progressive Left."
Demographic shifts toward the Republican platform! And Republicans did well, yet fell far, far flat of expectations in 2022. How could that be? Well, your primary explanation is simple and elegant: “Trump.” Oh if it were that simple! But it is not. The Republicans cannot capitalize on this shift, because the problem is far deeper, far more complex, indeed, far worse than you are willing to accept or address. It doesn’t matter what politicians say: it’s what they do. And there is no connection between what Republicans say (their platform) and what they do (whatever is politically expedient for their own power, privilege and political career). And after decades of this insanity, we simply are not buying what they’re selling anymore. Oh, we love the product messaging, but we deeply hate the product. You can waive your magic talisman all you want: Trump, Trump, Trump!! Until the Republicans learn integrity - until you address this, the elephant in the corner - we will not be convinced of anything. Until then, the only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans remains the lies they tell to get elected.
Erick, the examples you cite are so extreme that I think they cannot adequately be explained by reference to class insensitivity or even class warfare. Those concepts are fig leaves covering the real reasons for the Biden Administration's recent extreme measures and Biden's own nonchalance about them.
The real explanation, I think - and Conservatism's most compelling argument in the court of public opinion - is that the Democratic Party has been taken over by passionate leftists and leftists harbor a foundational assumption about the world that is both very empowering and tragically incorrect.
Leftists harbor an (often inchoate) assumption that people are basically good. This is a very empowering assumption because, leftists being people, that makes them basically good. If leftists are basically good, then it stands to reason that leftists want what's good and, by extension, what leftists want must be good. If that's true (it isn't but they think it is), then those who disagree with leftists must be bad and if those who oppose leftists are bad, then they may, or must, be subjugated for the greater good.
Leftists thus perceive their own goodness and the assumed goodness of those who agree with them as empowering them to subjugate those who do not agree. This arrogant error underlies the extremism of both the Obama and Biden administrations, in my view. It is particularly apparent in Obama's actions to dictate management decisions to General Motors and to undermine free market principles in healthcare, to name just two examples of very many, and in Biden's recent decisions to outlaw incandescent lightbulbs and all but outlaw internal combustion vehicles, the examples you cited in your broadcast. Yes, these actions - and countless others undertaken by Democrats in recent years - disproportionately harm the poor and middle class, but that's almost beside the point. To the leftists calling the shots in the Democratic Party, these decisions serve ends to which no good person could possibly object, so imposing them on objectors is good "for the public." The fact that broad swaths of the public - a majority, in my opinion - disagrees only strengthens the leftists' commitment; there are so many bad people who oppose them!
The truth, of course, is that people are not basically good. A short walk through downtown San Francisco demonstrates this fact. But how to design a society in light of this fact? The leftists' answer is obvious: Suppress bad behavior. Obvious, but characteristically wrong. A society built on suppression of bad behavior is, almost by definition, a repressive society; it must be so because the leftists' foundational assumption is wrong. (I think the history of leftist regimes, which typically start with or devolve into repression, proves the point.)
Our founders and the drafters of our Constitution envisioned a different way: A free society in which the natural uncooperativeness, fearfulness, selfishness, pettiness and greed of people would be poised and balanced to permit goodness to result. Our Constitutional ingeniously scatters government power among levels (state and federal) and among institutions (the federal legislative, executive, and judicial branches), while reserving a substantial amount of power in the people themselves. Under our Constitution, the vices of people in each branch are poised against those of people in other branches, and of people at one level against those of people in another, and finally against the self-interest of the people themselves. Our federal government is not the most efficient; run the way the Constitution envisions, it is only as efficient as it needs to be, and we, the people, demonstrably have been blessed that it is so.
Leftists, perceiving themselves uniquely empowered to do the public good, chafe at the Constitution and have, since the time of Woodrow Wilson, worked incrementally and consistently to subvert it. Only this subversion enabled the Obama administration to interfere with the management of General Motors and undermine free market forces in healthcare, or the Biden administration to declare incandescent lightbulbs and internal combustion vehicles no longer welcome in America. The text of the Constitution does not authorize federal government to take these steps and the Drafters would be horrified to learn that this is what leftists have wrought.
In my opinion, the opportunity that today's Democratic Party is handing the Republican Party on a silver platter is the opportunity to unveil the Democratic Party's leftist leadership for the misguided and arrogant gang that it is, and their ideas for the unconstitutional and repressive expression of error that it is.
Leftists have weaponized class, race, and many other trivial distinctions among Americans to set us against one another and distract us from their program of arrogant and unconstitutional repression. The last thing we need is a response framed in terms of class warfare; such an approach plays into the leftists' hands.
Rather, I believe we need a response that unveils the leftists' error, arrogance, and repressive outcomes for what they are, and that calls us all, as Americans, back to the Constitutional principles that enabled the United States to flourish for 130 years before Wilson and almost 100 years thereafter. We still have time to expose and reverse the harm leftism has done.
I believe you are right because the majority especially those that are most the uninformed of democrats/liberals I have met all suffer from the "we do good", "we are helping people", arrogance. Even should you explain that we are not ready for all electric cars for example, that our energy grid can't and isn't even able to now it doesn't matter. It is like a magic wand will appear and they will save the planet and so they are doing good. If they can't see what is front of them not sure how we can change it.
I know this will really chap Erick and some Repubs. But baring any big health issue(s) DT will run and probably win in 2024. More disclosures and recession economy will be part of the instigations. Here goes.
UGA poll: Trump remains clear favorite among likely GOP voters in Georgia
"Republicans have been given an opportunity to dominate up and down the ballot as long as they don’t nominate insane candidates obsessed with stolen elections. "
And based on the Twitter Files evidence, this is has been confirmed.
I think there is quite a disconnect here that the way forward for Republicans requires sanitation of the belief in election corruption. However, I don't think it is a good campaign strategy for any Republican to make this part of their platform. I do however, think it is a good idea to make the case that Republicans in general need to do a better job playing the dirty game that Democrats play. In other words, if ballot harvesting is allowed in the states and cities, then Republicans need to take advantage of it.
I hope Erick is right. My sense is that Democrats will run on infanticide (abortion) and against MAGA Republicans -no matter who the Republican candidate is. MAGA stands for "boogeyman" to Democrats because they have never defined it. It is the same way they throw out the word "racist". But the working definition for both MAGA and Racist is, "Anyone who doesn't agree with the Progressive Left."
None of thtt works unless you can get the press to cover it.
Demographic shifts toward the Republican platform! And Republicans did well, yet fell far, far flat of expectations in 2022. How could that be? Well, your primary explanation is simple and elegant: “Trump.” Oh if it were that simple! But it is not. The Republicans cannot capitalize on this shift, because the problem is far deeper, far more complex, indeed, far worse than you are willing to accept or address. It doesn’t matter what politicians say: it’s what they do. And there is no connection between what Republicans say (their platform) and what they do (whatever is politically expedient for their own power, privilege and political career). And after decades of this insanity, we simply are not buying what they’re selling anymore. Oh, we love the product messaging, but we deeply hate the product. You can waive your magic talisman all you want: Trump, Trump, Trump!! Until the Republicans learn integrity - until you address this, the elephant in the corner - we will not be convinced of anything. Until then, the only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans remains the lies they tell to get elected.
So true! I am afraid for my country and our way of life like I never have been before.
Democrats living up to there namesake.
DNC Deceiving Needy Citizens
Erick, the examples you cite are so extreme that I think they cannot adequately be explained by reference to class insensitivity or even class warfare. Those concepts are fig leaves covering the real reasons for the Biden Administration's recent extreme measures and Biden's own nonchalance about them.
The real explanation, I think - and Conservatism's most compelling argument in the court of public opinion - is that the Democratic Party has been taken over by passionate leftists and leftists harbor a foundational assumption about the world that is both very empowering and tragically incorrect.
Leftists harbor an (often inchoate) assumption that people are basically good. This is a very empowering assumption because, leftists being people, that makes them basically good. If leftists are basically good, then it stands to reason that leftists want what's good and, by extension, what leftists want must be good. If that's true (it isn't but they think it is), then those who disagree with leftists must be bad and if those who oppose leftists are bad, then they may, or must, be subjugated for the greater good.
Leftists thus perceive their own goodness and the assumed goodness of those who agree with them as empowering them to subjugate those who do not agree. This arrogant error underlies the extremism of both the Obama and Biden administrations, in my view. It is particularly apparent in Obama's actions to dictate management decisions to General Motors and to undermine free market principles in healthcare, to name just two examples of very many, and in Biden's recent decisions to outlaw incandescent lightbulbs and all but outlaw internal combustion vehicles, the examples you cited in your broadcast. Yes, these actions - and countless others undertaken by Democrats in recent years - disproportionately harm the poor and middle class, but that's almost beside the point. To the leftists calling the shots in the Democratic Party, these decisions serve ends to which no good person could possibly object, so imposing them on objectors is good "for the public." The fact that broad swaths of the public - a majority, in my opinion - disagrees only strengthens the leftists' commitment; there are so many bad people who oppose them!
The truth, of course, is that people are not basically good. A short walk through downtown San Francisco demonstrates this fact. But how to design a society in light of this fact? The leftists' answer is obvious: Suppress bad behavior. Obvious, but characteristically wrong. A society built on suppression of bad behavior is, almost by definition, a repressive society; it must be so because the leftists' foundational assumption is wrong. (I think the history of leftist regimes, which typically start with or devolve into repression, proves the point.)
Our founders and the drafters of our Constitution envisioned a different way: A free society in which the natural uncooperativeness, fearfulness, selfishness, pettiness and greed of people would be poised and balanced to permit goodness to result. Our Constitutional ingeniously scatters government power among levels (state and federal) and among institutions (the federal legislative, executive, and judicial branches), while reserving a substantial amount of power in the people themselves. Under our Constitution, the vices of people in each branch are poised against those of people in other branches, and of people at one level against those of people in another, and finally against the self-interest of the people themselves. Our federal government is not the most efficient; run the way the Constitution envisions, it is only as efficient as it needs to be, and we, the people, demonstrably have been blessed that it is so.
Leftists, perceiving themselves uniquely empowered to do the public good, chafe at the Constitution and have, since the time of Woodrow Wilson, worked incrementally and consistently to subvert it. Only this subversion enabled the Obama administration to interfere with the management of General Motors and undermine free market forces in healthcare, or the Biden administration to declare incandescent lightbulbs and internal combustion vehicles no longer welcome in America. The text of the Constitution does not authorize federal government to take these steps and the Drafters would be horrified to learn that this is what leftists have wrought.
In my opinion, the opportunity that today's Democratic Party is handing the Republican Party on a silver platter is the opportunity to unveil the Democratic Party's leftist leadership for the misguided and arrogant gang that it is, and their ideas for the unconstitutional and repressive expression of error that it is.
Leftists have weaponized class, race, and many other trivial distinctions among Americans to set us against one another and distract us from their program of arrogant and unconstitutional repression. The last thing we need is a response framed in terms of class warfare; such an approach plays into the leftists' hands.
Rather, I believe we need a response that unveils the leftists' error, arrogance, and repressive outcomes for what they are, and that calls us all, as Americans, back to the Constitutional principles that enabled the United States to flourish for 130 years before Wilson and almost 100 years thereafter. We still have time to expose and reverse the harm leftism has done.
I believe you are right because the majority especially those that are most the uninformed of democrats/liberals I have met all suffer from the "we do good", "we are helping people", arrogance. Even should you explain that we are not ready for all electric cars for example, that our energy grid can't and isn't even able to now it doesn't matter. It is like a magic wand will appear and they will save the planet and so they are doing good. If they can't see what is front of them not sure how we can change it.
Fifty years ago my old neighbor in Brooklyn NY gave me great political advice since she worked at City Hall. “All politicians are whores”.
There are no real differences between either party. They both want big government.
If you want to be immune from problems with the alphabet agencies, get adopted by Biden.
I know this will really chap Erick and some Repubs. But baring any big health issue(s) DT will run and probably win in 2024. More disclosures and recession economy will be part of the instigations. Here goes.
UGA poll: Trump remains clear favorite among likely GOP voters in Georgia
"Republicans have been given an opportunity to dominate up and down the ballot as long as they don’t nominate insane candidates obsessed with stolen elections. "
Hmm... you mean those candidates that pulled in the working class vote that establishment Republicans like Mitt Romney and Mitch McConnell could never attract? The working class generally still believe the 2020 election was stolen. https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meetthepressblog/poll-61-republicans-still-believe-biden-didnt-win-fair-square-2020-rcna49630
And based on the Twitter Files evidence, this is has been confirmed.
I think there is quite a disconnect here that the way forward for Republicans requires sanitation of the belief in election corruption. However, I don't think it is a good campaign strategy for any Republican to make this part of their platform. I do however, think it is a good idea to make the case that Republicans in general need to do a better job playing the dirty game that Democrats play. In other words, if ballot harvesting is allowed in the states and cities, then Republicans need to take advantage of it.