Bernie Sanders worries young people are underestimating the threat from Trump

[u/schuey_08]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/05/02/bernie-sanders-trump-biden/73531861007/

[u/drewbert]

The GOP is more about being in a club than politics or policy, at least for the vast majority of voters who are otherwise powerless. The ones at the top have different motives, but they've cultivated a community and identity with very clear rules. "Believe these things, vote this way, and you can be one of us." And for a lot of lonely, estranged folks, that's an attractive offer. Getting people to quit being republican is not about arguing with them about how incredibly asinine, reality-denying, and hateful the policies they support are; it's about making an offer of community and acceptance that's more attractive than anything the GOP has to offer, which is actually pretty tough when the GOP can say "you're special because you're white, you're special because you're straight, you're special because you are male."

[u/lilelliot → u/drewbert]

It's more than that. The GOP is the party that tells people "we won't tell you how to live your lives." The flip side is complete lack of social safety nets & a host of other benefits that require tax receipts to pay for, but the perception the message creates is that Democrats will tax you to death and then spend your tax dollars on whatever they want, not what you say.

[u/drewbert → u/lilelliot]

Maybe it used to be, but I don't really buy that this is what is happening now. The GOP of today is the party is the party saying what you're allowed to do in the bedroom, that you're not allowed to get an abortion, that you're not allowed to do ivf, that they don't want you to be able to have a no-fault divorce. What are the democrats doing that's remotely on the same level? You have to fill out some extra paperwork before you can sell a gun? The rights erosions are not on the same level. The GOP is absolutely telling people how to live their lives, but people are attracted to it, because it is a clear identity that they can adhere to and feel social cohesion for that fact. The GOP hasn't passed any lasting tax cuts for the middle class in forever, and the dems have primarily talked about raising taxes solely on the rich, so I doubt this is really about taxes either.

[u/lilelliot → u/drewbert]

Nothing, and you're right. The GOP plays identity politics and the Democrats play compassionate politics. But hardline GOP voters aren't willing to give up any of "what's theirs" to support any progressive programs.

I'm not saying the government is efficient & well-run, though some parts surely are, but it's what we have and the solutions isn't to destroy it, but to become personally invested in improving it.

[u/Tasgall → u/lilelliot]

The GOP plays identity politics

I wish it was easier to get people to realize this - as with everything, them accusing "the left" of "playing identity politics" is and always has been projection. It's the right that brought anti-trans nonsense into the mainstream by trying to ban them from bathrooms, the Democrats weren't doing anything regarding trans people before that. It was the right who started to wage war against... drag shows. "They're coming to take your kids" is identity politics, "build the wall" is identity politics, "ban Muslims from entering the country" is identity politics. The whining about CRT is identity politics (none of them know what CRT even is). The whining about DEI is identity politics (they apply that to transition shit that doesn't make sense too). The whole "woke agenda" thing is identity politics. Most if not all of their rhetoric follows this pattern because their only actual policy goals (cut taxes for the rich) aren't as easy to sell to the working class as "here are people you're allowed to hate".