well lmao - republicans aren't much better about it. I'm still pretty grateful Trump isn't a complete puppet for big corporations, or atleast he isn't as blatant as the last few presidents were.

At a certain point I think most halfway intelligent right leaning individuals just kinda give up and start voting for whoever promises less taxes to the upper middle class. I'll never forsake my hero Ron Paul though.

There's Sanders, but for some reason the Democratic party won't give him the support that he should be getting.

They act like the guy is Noam Chomsky or something.

...or a fucking communist.

Exactly.

You need to apply at least a two-dimensional approach: there is an economic policy dimension, and a social/cultural policy dimension. Since the Civil Rights Movement and the disintegration of the New Deal Coalition, elections in America are increasingly fought along the latter dimension. Guess why the donor class is pouring so much money into identity politics and shit like that - it's to divide the electorate along a policy dimension which is inconsequential to their own financial interests.



In particular, note how awfully many Democratic politicians fit the description of being "socially liberal, economically moderate/conservative", and how few politicians (from either party) fit the opposite "socially conservative, economically liberal" billing. Now comes the kicker: around 10% of Americans identify as the former, about 27% identify as the latter.

And now compare Trump to previous Republican candidates along these lines: he was more socially conservative/had more credibility in his social conservativeness, and his platform on economic policy was to the left of Romney/GWB/Reagan. There are polls from 2016 which show that the electorate indeed perceived Trump as relatively moderate on economic issues. This is really one of the major explanations for Trump's appeal: there was a huge gap in political representation/options for socially conservative and economically less-conservative people, and Trump filled this gap.




Coming back to Democrats: the big problem of the leftist candidates they have (Sanders, Warren) is that these candidates have a far-left social policy agenda in tow, rendering them unelectable for the "socially conservative, economically left-leaning" crowd.

A candidate who credibly promises to shut down illegal immigration, preserve the status quo on abortion/transgenderism/feminism coupled with higher taxes on the rich and corporations plus a more generous welfare state - such a candidate would be nearly unstoppable. On the other hand, partisanship might be so strong, so far beyond the point of no return that it could be impossible for any one candidate to hold and be credible with these positions at the same time.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Nov 23 2019 07:43pm

Personally, I think Trump won because he WASN'T a career politician. People are sick to death of career politicians.

His heart won't either.

too cruel