Quote (Thor123422 @ 9 Jun 2021 22:19)
Democrats in the 90's were for nationwide healthcare and educational reform. Things that they are either explicitly against, or only tacitly support to garner votes today. Both of which would have been massive boones to the rural poor but were staunchly blocked by Republicans.
Also, it's worth noting that Bill Clinton was not particularly liberal. He actively courted right wing governors to push a right wing agenda at the national level. He was bipartisan in the worst way. For the life of me I don't understand why Clinton gets credit for being a leftist or liberal. He was fairly in-line with Bush and Reagan.
I fully agree with you on Clinton. Neoliberalism is the worst. Funnily, I think that Clinton was actually to the right of Trump on almost all issues.
You still haven't addressed my point that MO state politics were not dominated by Republicans during your childhood though. How can Republicans, or the rednecks who vote for them, be responsible for state politics when Democrats held a trifecta from 92 through 2000, and Republicans didnt have a trifecta before 2005? Your people did not bring the poverty they experienced while you grew up on themselves by voting for Republicans. That might be the narrative you like to believe in, but it's not backed by the facts.
To be honest, they probably didnt even "bring it on themselves" at all. Imho, places like rural Missouri got shafted by globalization, neoliberalism and the transition from a labor- and commodities-driven industrial economy toward a knowledge-based post-industrial economy. Now, like I conceded before, these placing are definitely not doing themselves any favors by voting Republican no matter what in the present - but neither their present-day nor their past voting behavior is the root cause of their decline.
This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Jun 9 2021 02:34pm