The Democratic Party defends the oppressed from the oppressor.
The Republican Party chooses order over disorder.
Not anymore.
Political parties are coalitions of people and interests. A coalition has contradictions, exceptions, and hypocrisies but some themes emerge. FDR shaped the Democratic Party by addressing the problems of working people driven into poverty by the Depression. Republicans defended businesses and the free market that created prosperity in the 1920s. Blacks, Jews, and Catholics were part of the Democratic coalition.
The U.S. economy evolved since FDR and that created the change and backlash that re-defined both parties There was less factory work, more office work. More people attended and finished college, and these people became members of the broad middle class. The majority culture became more cosmopolitan, more shaped by urban financial and cultural elites. The Democratic Party absorbed those people.
A new populist GOP arose among people who resented "urbane" Democrats in mainstream cultural institutions. Trump's pugnacious crudeness gave leadership and permission for these "forgotten Americans" to feel and speak what they had bottled up as forbidden, politically incorrect, thoughts. The former GOP of small government, self-reliance, pro-business, and tradition is gone.
Democrats stuck with the value of justice for the oppressed. However, the base of the FDR party -- White, middle-class men -- were no longer an oppressed class, beaten down by industrial and financial elites. Democrats looked to help the new oppressed -- women, Blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Asians, homosexuals, immigrants. The politics of that are harder, made doubly so because Democratic thought leaders argue that the oppressors are not solely financial elites on Wall Street. Instead, the oppressors are the people and culture of the White middle class, especially its men, its own people. Thought leaders told those men to "do the work" and recognize their error.
The Reagan formulation of the lazy scofflaw welfare queen circulates, and Democrats here it, too. Hard working Black and Hispanic voters see people in their own communities gaming the immigration, tax, or welfare system. Blue state governors, including Oregon's Tina Kotek, agree to end testing for high school graduation because minority students "don't test well." California schools decide to stop teaching advanced math sequences because minority students aren't keeping up. None of this registers as fairness to many working class people, struggling to enter the middle class.
Democrats are scrambling to re-unify their coalition. Biden and Democrats are talking about jobs and Biden joined a UAW picket line. Democrats are in a majority on abortion -- a good issue if they can avoid looking extreme. Gay marriage is popular, but trans athletes and trans bathrooms may be a bridge too far. Democrats don't know what to do about immigration. That unresolved issue undermines its brand identity as the Party that can govern.
Republicans appear to have firmly staked new ground. They are no longer a conservative party, seeking order. They are a populist party, openly seeking disorder to displace America's cultural elites. Trump's election denialism and attack on democracy does not offend Republicans. His attacks on the justice system, including yesterday's antics in court, appears to add to his support.
The leaders of the two parties represent the state of transition. Trump represents a party that has made a full transition to disruption. They are the change party now. Biden personally represents old-fashioned stability and values, but he is not the spokesperson for Democrats. Voicing a persuasive narrative is not what Biden is good at. In that void thought leaders on the cultural left tell the Democratic story and Republicans cherry-pick from it, exaggerate and distort it, and then try to make that the Democratic brand. Democrats do not need to exaggerate or distort Trump. Trump is who he is.
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24 comments:
“Democrats implied there was something wrong with White, Christian, church-going, heterosexual, married Americans.”
I disagree. The only thing Democrats ever implied is that there’s nothing wrong with all the other Americans, and they all should be treated equally. That’s the ideal. To achieve it, those with a long history of having been oppressed deserve a leg up.
“Democrats do not need to exaggerate or distort Trump. Trump is who he is.”
Too true. Trump is the wannabe dictator who “fell in love” with Kim Jong Un, who said he likes Putin “because he called me a genius,” and who tried to overthrow the government. Republicans love him, not in spite of this but because of it.
As mentioned in a previous post, this issue is discussed at length in several books, including "Angry White Men" by Michael Kimmel (subtitle: "American Masculinity at the End of an Era"). In essence, the book is about male entitlement, which exists worldwide.
The author, a sociologist, is a heterosexual, white, married, Jewish man and a father. Fortunately, quite a few men get it. Joe Biden gets it. Senator John Fetterman gets it. Gavin Newsom gets it. Barack Obama, father of two wonderful daughters, gets it. Progress is possible for people with open minds and hearts who make the effort, but not for those mentally trapped in amber.
Instead, thought leaders on the cultural left tell the Democratic story and Republicans cherry-pick from it, exaggerate and distort it, and then try to make that the Democratic brand.
You don’t have to cherry-pick, exaggerate, or distort. You just have to accurately describe positions taken by the cultural left:
* biological men competing in women’s sports
* lowering academic standards to produce equal outcomes across racial categories
* calls to “defund the police“ and measures favored by “progressive district attorneys” which cause unacceptable increases in crime, violence, and disorder
* refusal to do anything about our out-of-control “open” southern border
* promotion of anti-white and anti-male prejudice in the name of “social justice”
* lack of concern (until a minute ago) about the export of American industrial capacity
* rigid policing of “micro-aggressions“, a term that basically means you said something that the left disagrees with
A majority in this country do not like these positions, and are totally fed up with being called names like “racist” for their honestly held and totally valid opinions. The Democratic Party has a choice: they can either sink with the their left-wing cultural elites or swim without them.
Totally agree with Trigoboff about these dastardly leftist cultural elites and their thumbing their nose at all of us REAL Americans!
* I completely agree with Michael that we're sick and tired of them all of our girls sports teams to compete with hordes of transgenders who were too sissy to cut it in their real sport and now are trying to dominate girls sports! There's gotta be thousands if not millions of cases of this happening right Michael? Cause I hear about Lia Thomas ALOT but I know there has to be so many others that it's a common occurrence right?
* Totally agree about micro-aggressions being such a dumb non-issue too! Why can't the gays, and the blacks and the Mexicans and others just put up with our verbal abuse like they used to back in the 50s and before when America was Great? It's just a bunch of harmless locker room talk right Michael? It's not like we're burning crosses in their yards anymore. At least not *too* often. They should be more grateful to guys like Trigoboff and I who tolerate their nasty little existence!
* And all that anti-white and anti-male nonsense, don't even get me started on THAT! It's really bothersome that they don't understand that pretty much everything good that's ever happened was because of White Men like Michael and I! Yeah sure slavery was bad, but that was a long time ago, water under the bridge, and besides they learned some useful skills there right Michael? Meanwhile we were taming the savages in the wild west, and keeping those 1700s values in place that our new House Speaker Mike Johnson holds so dear like making sure women knew their place was in the home! It's just shocking to me that they aren't more appreciative of all the great things us White Men have generously done for them!
It's these damn lefty cultural elites who want to shove their woke values down our throats who are ruining this country!
Such sarcasm! 😀
So much effort put into missing and avoiding and mischaracterizing the points I made.
It reminds me of how octopi emit clouds of ink when they feel threatened, hoping to hide inside them.
I still see you, Woke Guy, inside that fog of sarcasm. Is the prospect of a straightforward conversation so scary?
The cherry picked, exaggerated and distorted points provided above that supposedly “describe positions taken by the cultural left” are not to be found in any Democratic position papers. The Republican Party, on the other hand, clearly states in its platform they “will continue to enthusiastically support” Trump’s agenda. Lest there be any doubt, they enthusiastically supported his coup attempt.
If the Democrats do not explicitly disown the positions of their far cultural left, they will get painted with those extremely unpopular positions. Ideological purity or electoral success? Are Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar pointing the way to a winning political strategy?
Sink with The Squad, or win without them. Is this a difficult choice?
Oppressor/oppressed and order/disorder are defined as applied, not per se. For instance, the border epitomizes disorder, but Democrats believe America owes entry and support to undifferentiated third world complainants. Hamas and its support are thoroughly oppressive, to its constituents and its neighbors, but nonetheless are the credentialed “oppressed” for Democrats (until 1918 by the Muslim Turks!). The substantive ideological through-line is the fashionable modern Democratic shibboleth, “Bad America, Bad Israel” and most of all, “Bad West”. Biden like Obama before him is doctrinaire in this cultural Marxist connection, with equality and social justice at the lowest common denominator, which is why both have sought to empower Iran as a supposed moral balance to Israel. Trump, intellectually unserious, simply does not consider what exceeds the ambit of immediate personal aggrandizement. Americans generally, unlike most Democrats, consider America and the West to be a net benefit to the world, not a net pathogen. That is where the lines are currently drawn.
What kind of a mind considers two Democratic outliers the moral equivalent of an entire political party in thrall to a traitor? The good news is that a Democrat was just re-elected as governor of Kentucky. There may be hope for America yet.
LD wrote something profoundly inaccurate:
“The substantive ideological through-line is the fashionable modern Democratic shibboleth, “Bad America, Bad Israel” and most of all, “Bad West”. Biden like Obama before him is doctrinaire in this cultural Marxist connection, with equality and social justice at the lowest common denominator, which is why both have sought to empower Iran as a supposed moral balance to Israel.”
Biden is gushing in his praise of the USA. He ended every Town Meeting with a paean about how America is so great, we can do anything, etc. this continues throughout his term of office. Biden immediately took the side if Israel, fully aware that Iran was behind the attacks by Hamas. Doctrinaire?? Biden a cultural Marxist?? Empower Iran?? What laughable statements. Has LD confused Biden with a couple of the fringe people Biden defeated and whom Democratic voters rejected?
I am presuming, by the writing style, that this was likely written by the occasional commenter who uses the name Low Dudgeon. It would take a skilled imposter. I urge comment readers to reserve judgement. This seems “off” to me. Maybe it is bad parody, or April Fools. Bad AI? This comment may be by someone attempting to discredit the “real” Low Dudgeon by posting obvious nonsense in her name. I warn troll-commenters that I refer cases of identity theft to law enforcement. Identity theft is a class C felony.
Peter Sage
What kind of a mind …?
The precision high resolution instrument of a professional applied logician (I.e. a software developer).
Maybe you should quit while you’re still behind… 😀
I agree that didn’t sound quite like LD.
But speaking of Iran, I do not understand why both Biden and Obama were so desperate to get into that stupid and temporary Iran nuclear deal. It seems to me that the iron fist is the only sensible way to deal with the world’s foremost sponsor of terrorism.
Iron Fist ? You want us, or would you prefer the Israelis to start a Nuclear conflagration with Iran ? Should the Korean Peninsula be eradicated along with Japan or will you just consider Japan "Collateral Damage" ?
I rarely agree with anything you say, but your comments this morning are beyond the pale.
By the way, Ed, telling a Jew that he’s “beyond the pale“ has a resonance that you may not have intended. Look up the origin of the phrase “pale of settlement”, and see what you think…. 😱🤔
I'm well aware of what "the pale"was , and I fully intended to use the term. If that iffends you, OK. Your use of "Iron Hand offends ne.. One of my very best friends great grandparents escaped the ,only to get trapped in Hungary circa 1939, and captured by the Nazis.
It didn’t offend me. I think if you would have asked me what I meant by “iron fist“ instead of jumping to the conclusion that I meant nuclear war, maybe you would not have felt offended.
I'm well aware of what "the pale"was , and I fully intended to use the term.
Purposely speaking in a way that you hope will upset or offend a Jew is a blatant act of antisemitism. Thanks for letting me know who I’m dealing with.
🇮🇱
The origin of the phrase “beyond the pale” has nothing to do with Jews. It’s an English term. The “pale of settlement” was a Russian term coined under Czar Nicholas I. They aren’t related.
By the early 1900s, the terms “pale” and “pale of settlement“ had merged in the minds of many people. The way “beyond the pale“ was used in this comment thread is strong evidence of that merge.
The semantic drift of colloquial terms is a well-known phenomenon in the field of linguistics.
That must be the hidden meaning behind "Whiter Shade of Pale." It's antisemitic. "Pale Horse, Pale Rider" too. Who knew?
That must be the hidden meaning behind "Whiter Shade of Pale." It's antisemitic. "Pale Horse, Pale Rider" too. Who knew?
That’s just silly. Everyone knows those songs are about systemic racism and the scourge of whiteness.
Just for the record, "Pale Horse, Pale Rider" is a book. But it has the word "pale" so it must be antisemitic. It's beyond the pale.
Just for the record, "Pale Horse, Pale Rider" is a book.
And here I thought it was a protest against systemic speciesism, the domination of our equine brothers by the white devils. 😈
C'mon Peter. You know it's not identity theft or illegal to post a comment using a pseudonym, even if it attempts to mimic another pseudonym.
It's closer to a trademark violation, not a crime.
.
Please don't waste law enforcement resources trying to police your blog.
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