A recent post inspired me to open up this discussion:



The political zeitgeist has changed dramatically in the last few years. In my experience, Trump and Covid are two of what I would describe as Black Swan style events that caused huge swings and disruptions in how we think of ourselves. You also have changes that were destined to happen over time as people age out of the game and die off, and a new generation occupies positions of power, or just becomes a legal voter. The most significant change here in my view is the Boomer generation being largely retired, and beginning the die-off phase, while the Millennials (including myself, born in the mid-1980's) are beginning to occupy far more significant positions/influence/voice.

Obviously, based on how much shit we throw at each other here on PARD and probably elsewhere, there is still a sense of red vs blue. But I think it would be damn near impossible to say that what makes you red/blue (other than which party you vote for) is the same now as it was even as recently as 2015. I'll probably be unfair and biased about the left-wing ideals, so leaving them out of my post. Generally speaking, I see that neo-liberals have basically become the continuation of GW Bush style politics, but with a few social issue quirks that are relatively unimpactful. Then you have the extreme left wing AOC types who, in my view, are trying to create a Star Trek style society and are not likely to gain traction within the Democrat Party old guard establishment. But if someone wants to leave the left wing version of this, by all means.

Economy and labor
Old right wing: Corporations win and dominate as a result of business advantage and fair play. Global free trade. Lower taxes for all, including corporations. Corporations are people. Pump real estate by any means necessary. Destroy unions. Keep minimum wage down. The GDP should always increase. Your failure is due to a lack of grit and pulling of bootstraps.
Young right wing: Distrust of Corporations. Anti-trust, anti-monopoly. Not necessarily pro-union but not anti-union either. Will consider minimum wage increases but recognizes the problem lies elsewhere with stagnant wages. Free tree can hurt Americans especially in the value of labor. GDP does not reflect the economic health of every day people. Society should recognize that economic struggles are sometimes not a result of laziness and there should be a baseline level of compassion for others.

Immigration
Old right wing: The USA is magic soil that can transform any immigrant into a red-blooded patriotic American. Hispanics are natural conservatives. If there's an open job, we should keep bringing in immigrants who will work for cheap wages. Immigrants have grit. The population should always increase. "I don't give a damn about the browning of America." But for sure, illegal immigration is wrong. Come through the front door and do it the right way.
Young right wing: Shifted strongly in the other direction. Legal immigration also needs to be scaled back to a trickle. The native stock of America is all but replaced. Would rather be poor and live in harmony than be forced to coexist with cultures, languages, religions, etc that are not meant to intermingle with mine. Voting is just an ethnic head count. It's okay if the population levels off, there's plenty of people here already. It doesn't matter that some non-whites vote Republican and are outstanding people. I have a right to be among my own people, my own tribe, like every other people on Earth currently have.

Environment
Old right wing: This land is ours to exploit. We conquered it or bought it, it's our God-given right. Golf courses, large single-family plots in the middle of the desert with green grassy lawns, and SUVs. The commie-pinko libs are tree huggers who push misguided "global warming" theory. So what if the globe warms, we'll be growing oranges in Alaska. My HOA makes me use the recycling and compost bins, but I'm pretty sure it all just ends up in the same garbage bump, so why bother. Shop at Walmart. Clear cut forests to make room for more suburban subdivisions.
Young right wing: Dramatic shift. Humans have a moral and practical duty to be stewards of our environment. We can cooperate not only to improve pollution and waste management, assuage environmental threats due to resource exploitation, but we can improve it with careful management. Humans and environment living in sustainable symbiosis. But the left wing are wrong about "climate change" which, even if we ignore how it's a purely political issue, changes to adapt to each time their models are proven wrong. CO2 is plant food. We want plants to have food so we can have food. World temperature decreases have always been associated with catastrophic famines and societal instability. Humans are animals, are from the Earth, and are not a blight on the Earth, unless they become so. Diligently use the recycling and compost bins, but ideally, use the compost yourself. Shop locally-sourced if economically possible for you.

Foreign Policy / Empire
Old right wing: America is the "Shining city on a hill" - the last stand of freedom on Earth. America's military defeated the Nazis, and only because of the commie-pinko libs pulled us out of Vietnam did we "lose" that war. American influence has been roundly positive for the world - a stabilizing force for the causes of freedom and democracy. You mess with America, we'll bomb you to hell and you had it coming. Most Muslim countries are violent rogue states - the deader the better. Isreal is our greatest ally. Palestinians have no right to live there and a two-state solution is racist. China messes with Taiwan, we'll bomb them to hell. NATO forever.
Young right wing: The Vietnam War and other "policing actions" in the last 80 years were unjust and the people living there should hate our government for invading them and decimating their countries. Starting to look to the American Empire with strong skepticism. Most likely shared the Boomer version in younger days, especially after 911, but loyalty to America is wavering. Depending on where you are on the spectrum, it's severed completely, and you no longer feel safe and prideful in the world's military hegemon, but rather feel as though its limitless resources could some day be turned on you. Trump started no wars, first time in generations. If anything, that's one of his greatest accomplishments. Nation-building is absolutely foolish. American influence only rots the countries that are unfortunate enough to get in its crosshairs. America's military should be strong for defensive and humanitarian reasons - we recognize that it still keeps the sea lanes mostly safe from piracy, which allows for the global sea trade network that feeds us all, but policy should be almost entirely non-interventionist. War only if directly threatened. Disengage from military alliances. Isreal is not our ally, they are a burdensome attack dog we longer want to be a part of, and they are oppressing the Palestinians. America first, America first, and America first.

Individual Liberty
Old right wing: From my cold dead hands. The more guns, the better and the freer. You should get vaccinated and mask up, but I'm against government mandates.
Young right wing: Unlike the others, this hasn't changed much from the older generations. It's still from my cold dead hands, but the younger Republicans seem to be more forgiving when it comes to weed usage and sexuality, naturally. In regards to vaccines and masks, can't really say there's a distinction here in terms of age - it seems that across the spectrum, a slight majority of right wingers feel that the government should not be trusted with our medical decisions, masking up is largely for show, and vaccines aren't safe and aren't necessary, while a significant minority of the right wing is pro-vaccine, and anti-mandate. I've yet to hear of a single right wing soul who is pro-mandate.

Probably plenty more and important issues that I missed but I'm outta time.

Whats interesting to me is how quickly this political realignment occurred on the GOP side, versus how incrementally it occurred on the DNC side. Lets remember that the party of Michele Bachmann, the social conservatives / religious right with heavy corporate backing, was in control until 2016. The Trump movement only took hold with the election win, and would have been dismissed if Trump had lost even by a close margin like 2020. And there was a very obvious friction as the GOP shifted its platform, with never-Trumpers being forced out and populists taking lead roles. All that was in the span of a single presidential term, the last few diehard old guard have themselves become the new RINOs, like Cheney and Kinzinger, and are now pretty much democrats by default. Trumpism was swift. But the DNC has been sliding away from the working class and civil liberties and towards authoritarianism and social regressivism for decades. When can we even say it actually started? Probably with the election of Bill Clinton, and steady gentle downhill with the likes of Al Gore and John Kerry that we can only speculate about, until Obama took over and the slide accelerated throughout his term. He centralized control around himself, went full blown unilateralism, started pandering to regressives, embraced the elitist media/hollywood/corporate circle over the working class but still retained enough popularity and cautious policy approach to avoid alienating them. It wasn't until the Hillary Clinton era and now Biden era that democrats just went completely off the deep end at breakneck speed into the shitfuck we have now, where militant regressives think everyone who doesn't agree with the policies they only adopted in the past X months need to be put to death by the morally superior alphabet people.

There was really no trend towards Trumpism on the republican side even up to 2012. Blue collar populism, foreign policy disengagement / economic competition and respect for civil liberties were not even remotely in the GOP's cards up until Trump. If after Mitt Romney lost his election you told me the next guy the Republicans would circle around would be a godless social liberal who spent his whole life as a Democrat and personally paid for numerous abortions and openly advocates for canadian style policies and thinks we should get out of wars instead of starting them, I'd say you're nuts. They were the party of Dubya sending brown people to Guantanamo, the Patriot Act and telling gay people they'd burn in hell.

You're pretty delusional if you don't think the social conservatives and religious right with heavy corporate backing don't still have most of the control over Republicans. Trump is the face, but McConnel is the hands and feet of the party. Nothing gets done without their support.

Is this the new white supremacy copy/pasta?

We're supposed to believe in boogeymen behind the scenes? If the social conservatives and religious right held the reins, Trump would never have been elected in the first place. They would have rigged it like Hillary did with her primary, with her actual boogeymen behind the scenes. If Trump didn't have control, all the anti-Trump old guard republicans would still maintain significant political force in the party instead of being given the boot by their voters. The flexible ones chose to adapt and co-exist, to play down their divisions and throw their weight behind Trump and he gave them his endorsement and they carried on under the new banner. It would be delusional to watch the last 4 years and think Trump didn't successfully take over the Republican party and make its platform his platform. They aren't campaigning on legislating morality like banning gay marriage, they aren't warhawks calling for an invasion of Iran, and even the ones with corporate backing and in bed with China are doing everything they can to downplay it and distance themselves.

Fingers crossed.

Point to specifically what I said that reflects a desire for "White supremacy", as in, the desire to dominate other races due to my race's supposed inherent superiority, not the definition you probably use which is more along the lines of "anything I don't like". Direct quotes. Go.

Your dog whistles aren't subtle.

GRT


14 words.

That's not supremacy. That's self determination. Something all races have a god given right to have.

Saying the words dog whistle doesn't make you smart or correct.

You write a racist essay then ask this question

Im just glad your fringe isnt welcome in mainstream conservativism in canada.