"One side fears the shredding of safety nets, federal programs, and commitments to inclusion and honest history. The other side fears the destruction of traditional family mores, religion, and parental control." .. Why do liberal writers never understand what motivates republican voters, at least the new republicans like me?
The issues you mention are only a small factor. I don't believe the government can do much about traditional family values. I do object to transgender ideology being taught in public schools ( rather than reading, math, writing ). But what flipped me to voting for Trump was the sense that the left was authoritarian and could not be trusted.. The Covid narrative completely undermined my trust in public health experts and the politicians. The whole thing was a ginned up exagerated crisis with shocking government over reach and pharma companies making boatloads of money. Tremendous harm was done to the children who were kept home from school, to the toddlers masked for two years. Gavin Newson had people arrested for walking on the beach ! ( literally the same month that he had a dinner at French Laundry with no masks on!).
I am not saying covid wasn't a bad disease for the elderly. Some measures should have been taken to protect the very old. But the entire world went nuts for reasons we still don't fully understand. We never got a word of apology. Worst of all, the covid virus was most likely created in a lab and funded by the US government! I now believe that government can easily become tyranny ( as it did during covid). Smaller government is thus preferable to larger government. Thus I vote republican.
I agree the primary system is broken. Whether you have the right fix, I do not know. But I am sorry, Professor, you need an editor who will get you to the point earlier.
The system you mentioned is not working well at all in Washington state. The “top two” winners of primaries has created an echo chamber of one party rule. Many of our offices have also been redescribed as non-partisan and they’re actually more partisan than ever just with no label to help people discern. I imagine as we move into ranked choice voting in 2026 things are going to get measurably worse. I think this solution it’s actually the problem. I imagine after a couple of cycles of ranked choice we’ll repeal it like Alaska’s citizen effort.
The challenge with an electoral reform is that the legislature is composed of people who won their seats under the old rules—and likely would be concerned that changing the rules will cost them their seats.
I think this misses the key source of the problem. It is that Democrats ran out of other people's money and shifted into negative campaign mode. In other words, Democrats could no longer sell any great society ideas, so their only recourse was to destroy the brand of their opponent to look better by comparison. The Democrats use emotional terrorism through their media control to foment negative emotions (resentment, anger, disgust, etc.) within the electorate so that voters vote against and not for political choices.
This is the root cause of all the political division.
Democrats ran out of other people's money for two reasons. One is that they have ignored fiscal realities. Two is that Republicans jumped on board the easy spending game to buy votes. Three is that both pushed the globalism project and thus put the US in great economic competition with countries with lower business taxes and regulatory costs.
The Biden era was the last gasp of Democrat massive spending programs, and it has really broken the economy. National debt interest payments exceed defense spending and will grow to exceed all other spending categories. Continued pumping of government money into the economy has resulted in massive inflation that is destroying working class family finances.
The problem is that Democrats needed to pivot to a Trump-like platform, but instead they adopted a scorched earth strategy. And it worked a bit for them. The Dodd decision allowed Democrats to farm female rage and rage motivates voting more than does defense against rage. However, this isn't sustainable. Rage cannot be a long-term motivation strategy because it does not solve problems. It only exploits the narrative of problems. In fact, it required more problems to generate more rage. Democrats are stuck in a place where their political strategy requires a lot of problems and is harmed when the problems are solved. They cannot and will not pivot because Trump is living rent free in their heads.
But that is what will be required to fix what is broken. The Democrat Party is going to have to let go of the negative campaign strategy and begin to put forth a vision for the future that solves the big problems and Makes American Great Again.
Fact: no prior governance model has endured forever. That includes monarchies, republics, dictatorships, theocracies, tribal elders, and anarchy.
So - Why Democracy?
Like Fukuyama’s (very wrong) assertion that liberal world order was “the end of history” - why would we cling to the dogma that Democracy is the “end of governance”?
Medieval Europe was ruled by Kings and Popes for a thousand years. A THOUSAND! Then the printing press was invented and Luther’s writings circulated and brought down the papacy. Technology did a thousand year model a death blow.
Why would we Modern Humans believe “democracy” is the final product in an era of online primacy, global information and communication networks, media bubbles, and emerging artificial intelligence?
Again - can’t we start at least ASKING THAT QUESTION?
Why Democracy?
What might we do even BETTER with modern tools and know how?
Are we clinging to the steam train when a supersonic jet is in our hands?
"One side fears the shredding of safety nets, federal programs, and commitments to inclusion and honest history. The other side fears the destruction of traditional family mores, religion, and parental control." .. Why do liberal writers never understand what motivates republican voters, at least the new republicans like me?
The issues you mention are only a small factor. I don't believe the government can do much about traditional family values. I do object to transgender ideology being taught in public schools ( rather than reading, math, writing ). But what flipped me to voting for Trump was the sense that the left was authoritarian and could not be trusted.. The Covid narrative completely undermined my trust in public health experts and the politicians. The whole thing was a ginned up exagerated crisis with shocking government over reach and pharma companies making boatloads of money. Tremendous harm was done to the children who were kept home from school, to the toddlers masked for two years. Gavin Newson had people arrested for walking on the beach ! ( literally the same month that he had a dinner at French Laundry with no masks on!).
I am not saying covid wasn't a bad disease for the elderly. Some measures should have been taken to protect the very old. But the entire world went nuts for reasons we still don't fully understand. We never got a word of apology. Worst of all, the covid virus was most likely created in a lab and funded by the US government! I now believe that government can easily become tyranny ( as it did during covid). Smaller government is thus preferable to larger government. Thus I vote republican.
I agree the primary system is broken. Whether you have the right fix, I do not know. But I am sorry, Professor, you need an editor who will get you to the point earlier.
The system you mentioned is not working well at all in Washington state. The “top two” winners of primaries has created an echo chamber of one party rule. Many of our offices have also been redescribed as non-partisan and they’re actually more partisan than ever just with no label to help people discern. I imagine as we move into ranked choice voting in 2026 things are going to get measurably worse. I think this solution it’s actually the problem. I imagine after a couple of cycles of ranked choice we’ll repeal it like Alaska’s citizen effort.
The challenge with an electoral reform is that the legislature is composed of people who won their seats under the old rules—and likely would be concerned that changing the rules will cost them their seats.
How about having elections on Sunday, not a workday where the vast majority of voters have to go to work.
I think this misses the key source of the problem. It is that Democrats ran out of other people's money and shifted into negative campaign mode. In other words, Democrats could no longer sell any great society ideas, so their only recourse was to destroy the brand of their opponent to look better by comparison. The Democrats use emotional terrorism through their media control to foment negative emotions (resentment, anger, disgust, etc.) within the electorate so that voters vote against and not for political choices.
This is the root cause of all the political division.
Democrats ran out of other people's money for two reasons. One is that they have ignored fiscal realities. Two is that Republicans jumped on board the easy spending game to buy votes. Three is that both pushed the globalism project and thus put the US in great economic competition with countries with lower business taxes and regulatory costs.
The Biden era was the last gasp of Democrat massive spending programs, and it has really broken the economy. National debt interest payments exceed defense spending and will grow to exceed all other spending categories. Continued pumping of government money into the economy has resulted in massive inflation that is destroying working class family finances.
The problem is that Democrats needed to pivot to a Trump-like platform, but instead they adopted a scorched earth strategy. And it worked a bit for them. The Dodd decision allowed Democrats to farm female rage and rage motivates voting more than does defense against rage. However, this isn't sustainable. Rage cannot be a long-term motivation strategy because it does not solve problems. It only exploits the narrative of problems. In fact, it required more problems to generate more rage. Democrats are stuck in a place where their political strategy requires a lot of problems and is harmed when the problems are solved. They cannot and will not pivot because Trump is living rent free in their heads.
But that is what will be required to fix what is broken. The Democrat Party is going to have to let go of the negative campaign strategy and begin to put forth a vision for the future that solves the big problems and Makes American Great Again.
Danielle - thank you. Well said.
A Thought Challenge: Why Democracy?
Fact: no prior governance model has endured forever. That includes monarchies, republics, dictatorships, theocracies, tribal elders, and anarchy.
So - Why Democracy?
Like Fukuyama’s (very wrong) assertion that liberal world order was “the end of history” - why would we cling to the dogma that Democracy is the “end of governance”?
Medieval Europe was ruled by Kings and Popes for a thousand years. A THOUSAND! Then the printing press was invented and Luther’s writings circulated and brought down the papacy. Technology did a thousand year model a death blow.
Why would we Modern Humans believe “democracy” is the final product in an era of online primacy, global information and communication networks, media bubbles, and emerging artificial intelligence?
Again - can’t we start at least ASKING THAT QUESTION?
Why Democracy?
What might we do even BETTER with modern tools and know how?
Are we clinging to the steam train when a supersonic jet is in our hands?