It's not rational. It's understandable. Yes there is an element of the blue collar white middle class losing economic power over the past half century due to many factors from automation to outsourcing to the point the country has become mostly a service industry nation. That hurts the blue collar worker. That frustration is then combined with the right wing media grift from Tucker to YouTube pundits that use that frustration to ignore actual issues and instead worry about "cancel culture" and "critical race theory".
The category that seems to be most vocal about its fear of communism, yet, would be the only group to improve their trajectory with it. Lulzt.
No, not really. Dems are not offering any tangible alternative on real issues, so they go by cultural affinity...
What are tangible alternatives? Do blue collar workers not want child care significantly cheaper? Do they not want universal Pre-K? Do they not want expansion of healthcare? Do they not want a massive influx of new infrastructure and energy jobs to take advantage of their technical skills? Do they not want stronger worker rights? Do they not want free technical schools?
Because being GOP “business friendly” certainly has helped the working class since Reagonomics…. It hasn’t caused hyperglobalization or hollowed out the industrial base or anything.
I don’t think people grasp the brutal efficiency of capitalism… It was efficient to take all those small businesses and put them into a big box. Just like it’s efficient to have a “just in time” supply chain.
Guys, sorry, I'm not going deep into this. I was just stating what the voter block analysis says. Search for example for Nate Cohn, he has written about this very convincingly. Obama was actually liked by these folks in 2008, but he did not stop the decline. Obama was much stronger with WWC than both Clinton and Biden. Right now Trump resonates with them culturally, while the Left antagonizes them and insults them, as seen here in this thread. It will be hard to reverse, according to analysts. I actually don't think it's hopeless, but am not really an expert of policy. My interest is more on voting trends and political/voting geography changes, that's why I chimed in...
The liberal message does not resonate with WWC. They want to keep getting paid(union wages and pensions) for manual labor that people in China and machines will do for 10 cents on the dollar. They want that world back. Honest pay for an honest job even though those jobs aren't needed much anymore.
Obama ran on a populist campaign in the wake of the major economic crisis from the real estate crash. I won’t argue against that the more “cultural progressives” went too far, but even something as simple as gay marriage created shockwaves. The bottomline is the working class sold themselves with their wrong ideas about capitalism and “business friendly” . Things don’t rust quickly, and the “Rust Belt” is an issue that is 50 years in the making. Not to mention the rural to urban migration. Funny how personal responsibility is a fluid notion.
I found it interesting to go back and read some of the reactions to the January 6th protest/riot/insurrection/coup (or whatever you wish to call it) in 2021. January 6th reactions start on page 13.
I wish I were kidding but the leading theory is that covid got him. IIRC his last posts were about him being in the hospital and testing positive.
Wow, I really hate to hear that. I had not even really thought about him until this post was bumped. My heart goes out to his family if that is indeed what happened.
