Seriously. I have no clue why these takes have been cropping up lately, and I don't know what kind of galaxy brain first came up with this brilliant strategy, but it is the most horrible idea I've ever encountered here in a long, long time. Probably ever.

It seems like the source of this is the appraisal that the democrats have become the party of elites and republicans are working class or some shit now. This is moronic and simply not factual. Not because the Democrats aren't the party of the elites. Just because the republicans are even more so. Why don't you look up who minorities overwhelmingly vote for? Why don't you look up the average income of republican voters compared to the dems?

What is true is that the republicans are doing well at rural areas. For this the blame seems to be solely on libs being annoying on twitter, or the dems ignoring rural areas. Both have some truth, especially the second, and it should be avoided at all costs. But no, this is not the only reason, there is also the fact that rural areas pretty much everywhere in the world and especially the developed world are conservative. Again, not just the US, this is EVERYWHERE and it's been like that for ages. The same thing was the case even when Marx was writing. There are reasons for that, and I'm not gonna go into them right now, but it is stupid to ignore that this always happens and to pretend like this is something unique and only because the dems aren't helping them much (and the republicans ostensibly are lol).

All this is to say that it is a good idea to not talk down to people there and to work to get them on our side, but it WILL be harder than it is in the cities, and most of the people there that vote red don't do so because they are secretly progressive but they just don't like dems looking down on them, but because they really are more conservative compared to people in cities, which - again- is true in most countries for rural areas, and these people would never, ever, EVER vote for some "socialist" trying to be elected as a republican. Even worse, everyone who is progressive would never, ever, EVER vote for you either because they wouldn't vote republican either, and the party itself would never, ever, ever, EVER let any kind of socialist run for office with them.

Like, there is also this silly idea that it would somehow be easier to get into the republicans than it is to get into the democrats. Yeah, lol, the party that is fervently and extremely vocally (and in a way that is integral to its function) anti-literally everything the left advocates for, is gonna give you an easy time "infiltrating". Um, no. Just no. It seems to hinge on a childish perception of politics that republicans are just really dumb and super clueless. They are not. When someone in politics does something bad, it's usually not because they are dumb.

The only result this could ever have is stain the left and alienate the only people who remotely care. At least 80% of the people who would ever care about the goals of the left are people who vote democrats. It is super important to reach out to the other 20%, but the worst possible way to do that is to go with the republicans, because not only will you lose 80% of the people who already might care, you will also have to pretend to be something that is much, much different to what you really are and you will end up just making a mockery of the left.

Please please please purge these ideas from your mind, they are so genuinely terrible that even considering them is destructive. It's like people on this sub (who according to the last survey were like, what, 90% liberal before they were radicalised?) are so pissed at their former liberal selves, at Biden and at the democrats that their political instincts are completely blinded and they end up having some genuinely shitty ideas that only lead to embarrassment. The republicans are not turning working class, they can't be pushed to the left. They're doing nothing that almost every conservative party ever hasn't done a million times before. The dems dropping the ball big time with Biden thus making a tiny percentage of minorities and working class people turn to republicans does not fucking mean anything, it just means Biden is even worse than Clinton at convincing these communities, a "shift" won't happen in the foreseeable future. The only way it ever could in the coming few years is if there was a world historic, unprecedented event that is just not foreseeable. Please reconsider your opinions if you are persuaded by these ideas, think why you are being persuaded by that.

  • Pezevenk [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I don’t see anyone on this site suggesting that leftists join the Republican party,

    Well I have, like, 3 times these last days. They said it outright, not my interpretation. And they were upvoted. I can find a couple of them and send them to you.

    The rural south at one point was a hotbed for labor activism and used to have stronger worker’s rights and unions.

    Because they were more industrialised, and now they aren't. I didn't say it has something to do with the rural psyche or whatever. It is what always ends up happening in places where the economy is much more agriculturally oriented.

    Fact of the matter is, in deep red states, it’s voters over the age of 55 and up that are constantly voting Republican in elections. There is usually a less than 40% voter outcome for state elections. If you actually lived in one of those states, it’s not that hard to figure out that middle class and rich boomers are the ones voting for these GOP ghouls.

    So basically the same thing as everywhere else. This is not unique to rural areas. Yes, I know it is mostly rich boomers who vote for them, that's what I said elsewhere in my post, I don't disagree, but again, that this generally prevails in rural areas is a general rule, and it will genuinely be harder to move these areas left. Not impossible, just harder. That's what the argument is for, it's not like if you just say you're not a democrat and stop talking down to them they will stop voting R and flock to you, they won't. It's not as simple.

    It’s also 100% true that the Democrats don’t even bother campaigning in rural areas. I know this cause I have been there and done that. They don’t even run house district candidates in some of these states outside their big cities. Want to make some more excuses for them?

    I literally said it's bad that they do that, why do you think I'm making excuses for them? I think you've missed the point of the post.

    WTF, when has talking to down to people ever moved them left???

    Did you miss the "not" in my post? Read the sentence you put in bold again. It says it is a good idea NOT to talk down to them. I'm not going to go in detail responding to your post if you've just misread my post. I am saying the opposite of what you think I am saying. My post has nothing to do with you. It has to do with the people who advocate for socialists to join the Republican party, word for word. 3 times. And again, upvoted. The third time I saw it I got pissed at how terrible some people's ideas were and made this post. Now I can understand why you were angry at my post if this is what you read, but it is not what I said. I am 100% with you that these areas should not be abandoned and we should not adopt the shitty attitude of the liberals.