But like, 7% Republican votership is still…weird. And unexpected. Given that that party has contributed absolutely nothing but lies and murderers.
If a hungry man is hanging from a rope over a pit of lava, I am not starving him by keeping food on my side of the pit, I am prioritizing getting him off the rope and away from the dangerous situation first, before addressing equity issues.
Given that that party has contributed absolutely nothing but lies and murderers.
It contributes a bunch of patronage, both through the private sector via tax cuts and federal contracts and “faith based initiative” spending and via the public sector through our enormous national security state and attendant bureaucracy.
I don’t think it can be overstated how much something like the invasion of Iraq or the War on Drugs or the Bush-Era bank bailout or the GOP war on renewable energy has profited both the big corporate interests and the hundreds of thousands of scammy small business shits plugged into the public money spigot.
And that’s before you get into the social mobilization provided by the party. Religious organizations and white nationalist groups generally like the GOP because the GOP promotes, defends, and finances their own socio-economic goals. The airforce is swarming with Christian fundamentalists while the army and marines churn out a steady supply of future chud police officers to do the dirty work of suppressing minorities in big urban settings. The tech industry is flush with white nationalism in large part because it trades money and talent with the NSA, the CIA, and the FBI - themselves hot-houses of right-wing social and religious sentiments. Anti-union activists, anti-environmentalists, and anti-DEI/Civil Rights organizers all adore the GOP, because they enable continued socio-economic domination nationally.
To say the party just supplies a few lies and the occasional bloody war drastically diminishes what the party does at the national, state, and local levels. Modern white nationalism can’t exist without an ally in the Republican Party. Modern evangelical christianity can’t propagate without the endless pogroms and inquisitions conservatives inflict on schools and colleges. Modern extractive corporate interests can’t reliably generate bigger profits without the cycles of deregulation and eminent domain land seizures perpetuated by Republican state and national leaders.
Okay, sorry, 93% is also an acceptable number.
But like, 7% Republican votership is still…weird. And unexpected. Given that that party has contributed absolutely nothing but lies and murderers.
If a hungry man is hanging from a rope over a pit of lava, I am not starving him by keeping food on my side of the pit, I am prioritizing getting him off the rope and away from the dangerous situation first, before addressing equity issues.
It contributes a bunch of patronage, both through the private sector via tax cuts and federal contracts and “faith based initiative” spending and via the public sector through our enormous national security state and attendant bureaucracy.
I don’t think it can be overstated how much something like the invasion of Iraq or the War on Drugs or the Bush-Era bank bailout or the GOP war on renewable energy has profited both the big corporate interests and the hundreds of thousands of scammy small business shits plugged into the public money spigot.
And that’s before you get into the social mobilization provided by the party. Religious organizations and white nationalist groups generally like the GOP because the GOP promotes, defends, and finances their own socio-economic goals. The airforce is swarming with Christian fundamentalists while the army and marines churn out a steady supply of future chud police officers to do the dirty work of suppressing minorities in big urban settings. The tech industry is flush with white nationalism in large part because it trades money and talent with the NSA, the CIA, and the FBI - themselves hot-houses of right-wing social and religious sentiments. Anti-union activists, anti-environmentalists, and anti-DEI/Civil Rights organizers all adore the GOP, because they enable continued socio-economic domination nationally.
To say the party just supplies a few lies and the occasional bloody war drastically diminishes what the party does at the national, state, and local levels. Modern white nationalism can’t exist without an ally in the Republican Party. Modern evangelical christianity can’t propagate without the endless pogroms and inquisitions conservatives inflict on schools and colleges. Modern extractive corporate interests can’t reliably generate bigger profits without the cycles of deregulation and eminent domain land seizures perpetuated by Republican state and national leaders.
None of this shit works without the GOP.
It’s not weird when you realize most voters just do whatever their favorite algorithm tells them to.