It’s difficult to get a man to learn a lesson when his paycheck depends on him not learning it.
damn, didn’t ANYBODY in the comments section bother to read the article?
Nope! Most all everyone just reacts to headlines and doesn’t even click through.
I guess I’m just a coastal elite, but I didn’t find the argument that Dems have tacked left and the electorate has stayed the same particularly compelling. The part about the working class identity was annoying — there’s so many people who want to think of themselves as some kind of merchant or artisan class that I don’t think really exists, and they would be much better off if they realized that if you live off the income you get from your work, you’re working class. Overall, I didn’t find the analysis persuasive.
Everybody who says the democrats - who are right wing by international standards - are too left are just lying.
So the big argument seems to be that the nebulously defined here “working class”, or rather people who explicitly consider themselves such, don’t want things that the GOP has been demonizing for decades?
This is just an argument for dems to be more right to appeal to Republican voters. One of the citations is a link to an essay written by the senior editor of the American conservative.
What a worthless article.
That’s how I interpreted this as well.
Either that, or it reads that working class Americans aren’t very good people.
I used to think that but have come to the conclusion in recent years that people act the way they do because their lives are genuinely terrible and there is no possibility of them becoming better because there is nowhere for them to go. For those with great motivation, great intelligence, or great connections, there are plenty of things to do. For the average person brought up in and living in an average way, though, there is nothing but generational pain.
Sadly, most people don’t have enough imagination to consider how things could be better for them or everyone.
For the average person brought up in and living in an average way, though, there is nothing but generational pain.
And despite this, they seem hell-bent on perpetuating said generational pain.
That’s the unironically saddest thing in life.
This is also my takeaway. Moving to fascistic leaders is just an expression of overwhelming pain.
It’s similar to Weimar Germany. Shame and economic dislocation are enormously powerful motivators.
If you’ll give me some rope, I think the Democratic Party has lost their constituency because they have made two errors:
- Following Reagan, they tried to chase Republican voters by abandoning working class policies, disenfranchising workers and increasing inequality. Now, older people run the Democratic Party and they fail to see how much the landscape has changed since they were initially elected.
- There are not many Democrats that harness anger. Anger is addictive and enthralling. The party instead promotes loyalists, policy wonks, technocrats, and extremely ineffective consultants. This has not paid off but their donors demand this sort of management.
Dang.
I also think that the Democratic party is lead by people who are among the elite and have no real connection to the average person. The GOP doesn’t either but they tell a story that will compel those with enlarged amygdalas.
They are morons. But so are both parties. It’s all cash grab buy votes. But fuck progressives too. They only care about their fringe groups, higher taxes and 2A removal. Progressives would love to be enslaved bc they want 2A removed.
I said like a decade ago that if Democrats dropped the gun thing they would win every election.
Gotta get that Bloomberg and Every town money. Stupid. Dems suck at winning anything.
