Just gonna keep this short and to the point.
We all know FDR only went so far with including black people in new deal programs to appease the southern coalition of Dems. He also denied entry for Jewish Refugees and deported many Mexicans during the Great Depression.
Once LBJ passed the Civil Rights Act, Dems essentially lost the South forever.
Nixon pulled federal funding from affordable public housing in black neighborhoods and it strengthened his base.
Reagan blamed the aids epidemic on gay people and was embraced by the country.
Obama had to run on being anti-gay marriage in 08, but ran on being pro-gay marriage in 2012 and lost some support.
Trump spent millions in anti-trans ads. And leaned into the trans panic.
I know social issues aren’t everything, but it seems like that’s the direction America has gone post Civil Rights.
So, anyways, I think for most people who voted R, bigotry is something they’re willing to accept if the promise is it will result in a better life, but I don’t think it’s what they crave.
I think just writing it all off as bigotry and racism is convenient, but it’s counter-productive.
No, just no.
Republicans blame immigrants and ‘DEI hires’ as the thing to blame for their voting block’s economic woes. Their voters buy that shit up like an all you can eat buffet. They are not ‘willing to accept’ bigotry and racism, they are justifying their bigotry and racism by letting Republicans blame the people they already hate for their economic woes.
Dems fail because they don’t sell their wins and are wet noodles when opposing rising fascism, so people aren’t motivated enough to overcome Republican voter suppression. They would absolutely support someone with angry dad vibes just like they supported Obama’s solid messaging on hope and change.
No, just no.
You are even saying it yourself:
They blame immigrants and DEI hires FOR THIER ECONOMIC WOES.
Their problem is at the end of your own statement.
Reputation leadership has offered up an easily digestible explanation. It’s wrong, but it’s an explanation.
If deportations weren’t being offered as a solution to economic woes (the underlying problem), then for most people who voted R, they wouldn’t care about them.
A desire for a solution to their woes are what they want. Bigotry isn’t the goal of the voters, it’s just a price they’re willing to pay.
Strike this in contrast from Republican LEADERSHIP. Bigotry and racism IS their goal, because their goal is to maintain a culture war to avoid class war.
People who are not (or at least less) racist and bigoted wouldn’t fall for Republican ‘solutions’ that involve deporting immigrants and blaming DEI. They want to believe that immigrants and DEI hires are to blame.
Yeah but they want to believe anything simple will fix their lives.
You can substitute any other simple answer. Trade deficits. A lying body of scientists. That a previous leader somehow betrayed them. It doesn’t matter.
Because any substitution fits the bill, that’s why I say it isn’t about the bigotry. It’s about whatever leadership sold them. It just happens to be the case that what was for sale was bigotry. For (most) voters, it’s a means to an end, not the end in and of itself.
Don’t get me wrong, hardcore bigots exist. Being able to recognize that it isn’t useful to ignore that there are differences between those who’ll (stupidly) accept bigotry as a solution to an actually existent issue (wealth loss) to those who see bigotry as a goal in and of itself. Recognizing the relative proportions between those two groups is valuable too.
You’ll make bad decisions if you’re operating with an overly simplified model. This applies to Republican voters grasping for an explanation they can comprehend, as well as to democratic voters trying to understand the reality of the political landscape.
