haxxiy said:
You have a point there. What happened to the party that used to dominate small towns and urban centers alike by its connections to the working class? |
You guys are getting it backwards. The Democratic Party didn’t abandon the rural/working class demographics, those demographics abandoned the Democratic Party.
The Democratic Party has never turned away from the programs created by the New Deal coalition in the 1930s-early 70s. This was a period of high taxes & regulations that saw massive investments in worker protections, healthcare, housing, manufacturing, small businesses, agriculture, education, infrastructure, research & development, environmental protections & safety net programs. Things that the Democratic Party still largely supports.
What caused these demographics to realign? The 60s-70s was an era of counterculture movements fighting for the rights of minorities, women & LGBT people and it just so happens that a lot of rural/working class whites are racist, sexist & homophobic so the Republican Party began to use the Southern Strategy to cozy up to racists and later the Christian Right.
It’s like the LBJ quote: “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
Basically, there are a shit load of people out there who are fighting against things that will help them because those things will also help people that they think are beneath them so as the Democratic Party began to be a party of inclusiveness, the people who didn’t want to include others left the party.
On top of that, the poor economy & stagflation of the 1970s paved the way for Reagan’s “trickle down” policies of tax cuts and deregulation to take off.
Last edited by zorg1000 - 3 days agoWhen the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.
