if you look closely at the history of u.s. politics, the only time a new party happens is in the realignment which occurs when an established party collapses. it generally seems to take 2-3 presidential election cycles to happen. at least once it happened by stealth after the passage of the civil rights act of 64 and the voting rights act of 65 when the republican party played on the racial anxiety of white southern democrats and the democratic party shifted to become a multi-racial liberal party and suddenly the republican party became the southern/rural party while the democratic party became the northern/urban party.
in my considered opinion, after a lifetime of observing my southern and rural peers, it is almost impossible to overstate the role of race and racism in u.s. politics in general as well as republican policies in particular. my phrasing here is almost too cautious because i don’t know that i have ever seen anyone on the national level actually overstate the role of racism in either over the 50 years i have paid attention to politics since i was 10 years old.
The real problem is that the Republicans have gutted public education wherever and whenever they’ve been able to get away with it. Unfortunately, that hits rural areas especially hard. Education is the key to upward social mobility, and if there’s one thing the rich hate above all else, it’s newcomers to their exclusive club. So, education is first on the chopping block.
Conversely, Trumpistan has its outposts in the nation’s metropolitan areas, and there it’s all about white privilege, not about any real or imagined condescension from city dwellers. My county as a whole went blue, but my precinct turned out light red and the next one over was deep red. There was a lot of white flight to the area in the 1970s. On the other hand, I saw many more Biden signs out than I expected this year. Buyer’s remorse?
Whenever I hear people talk about regulations I always point out that when it comes to particulars people who are against certain regulations tend to be all for them when the shoe is on the other foot. My old landlord always complained about building permits and safety protocols, but when he bought another property he would also complain about how the previous owners did things the wrong way, cut corners, etc. Usually “deregulation” is shorthand for “make more money”, in rural areas I’m sure it’s not much different-- ignoring wetlands rules to make more arable land for example. There may be some cases when giving rural areas a different standard than urban areas might be feasible, but I don’t think it’s “huge”, more like a few minor examples.
And sadly the conservative echo-chamber is the one that’s been ruining our trust in government (since Reagan as you point out.) Spreading fear, mistrust, disinformation, and hyperbole is a money making scheme for Fox news. It’s nigh on impossible for Democrats to fix that when every night Sean Hannity will find reasons to make his audience hate Democrats for trying to help their constituents.
When rural voters say things like “if you want a fancy library, go live in a city!” Or, “who needs a community health clinic? Those people should pay for their own doctors.” they are not being branded as insular, stupid hicks by others. They are branding themselves. There was a time when getting a Carnegie library for your town was considered the basis of upward mobility.
Mine too…I thought better of it and have deleted it. But it does occur to me, the dichotomy he is making between urban l-bt-ards and rural hicks…do either of those sound like they are meant to cover non-white people? Are they being erased again? Because that’s what most of the two camps nonsense does…it’s so much easier to pretend there’s no racism if you casually forget about the people it targets.
It’s also funny, I know a lot of people who look down on racism but not on rural people themselves. In fact, I have had heard a lot more left-leaning support for farm workers than right-leaning, given how often they are not white or could use government protections. Most of the time I hear the countryside dismissed as nothing but hicks it comes from…complaints like this one. Almost as if, like the idea the moderation here is targeting Republicans, it’s an imaginary grievance being used to justify something.
Oh, also, I remember what I meant to say, that of all the portrayals of Republicans as horrible people, I honestly think the one being offered here is one of the worst. In a “you can say what you want about the tenets of national socialism but at least it’s an ethos” kind of way. Like, obviously no pass from me on anyone who genuinely believes in white supremacy and the disgusting cruelty that comes with it. But the idea that someone doesn’t, they don’t particularly care to have say children thrown in cages, but they will vote for it anyway because they feel disrespected?
That person is an amoral sociopath. Not only does that description not make me think they are worth reaching out to, it makes me wonder if I wouldn’t have more luck with the actual Nazis. Like, at least I know beliefs can be changed sometimes…this is just pure egotistical solipsism. If that is the best reason you can find to consider someone is “redeemable”, something is very wrong with them.
Honestly nazis are much easier to deal with. You can punch and glass up and shoot nazis all day long and the only people who get offended are other nazis, so their hurt feelings don’t even slightly matter.
The suburbs, especially the very affluent ones close to a major city, are the only place i have ever been surprised to hear my coworkers called n_gg_r to their faces, I am never surprised by rich white people being offal anymore, by kindness but never the pure unadulterated shittyness
