As a Democrat this article is scaring the crap out of me

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/11/04/new-republican-party-working-class-coalition-00122822

We’re screwed next year, and, if it even matters, for the foreseeable future.

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hartfire

That swing is unfortunate - especially with climate change being a more critical and urgent issue than most people realise.

I believe the political swing dis ue to the success of right-wing think tanks. They've weaponised the idea of trickle-down economics.
Working class people have been led to believe that, as inflation erodes the value of their salaries, they will do better if the rich make profits and pass on a percentage in wage increases. But the evidence doesn't match the theory.
The reality is that shareholder companies reap bigger profits, industrial machinery and IT expand, jobs grow fewer and wages grow at a slower rate than inflation.
Once the working classes have seen the Reps in power for long enough, when they see they can no longer pay for a deposit on a house, payoff a mortgage or afford medical care, they'll finally realise how conservative scam-think works.

Theyitis · 36-40, M

@hartfire According to the article America has become a rich enough country that class no longer determines what party you belong to. I think for most of the twentieth century your theory would be correct, most middle and working class people trying to figure out which party to belong to would look first at the economic philosophies of the two parties and think, “Trickle down economics? Wtf! That’s only going to help rich people get richer.” So they would become Democrats.

But now cultural values are what most people look at to determine which party they belong to. If they went to college, got white collar jobs, live in big coastal cities, generally like learning new things just because they like learning new things, they’ll be Democrats. If they didn’t go to college, got blue collar jobs, live in flyover country, go to church, enjoy hunting and fishing, only care about learning new things if it helps them make more money, then they’ll be Republicans.

Of course there will still be some swing voters and the economy will still be a major issue, but they won’t judge economic arguments on their own merits anymore. If their cultural values are closer to the second type of person I described above, then they’ll probably simply adopt Republican economic philosophy. It fits with their cultural values, so they’ll be motivated to defend trickle down economics even though it doesn’t actually make any sense, much like how they defend Trump no matter how obvious he makes it that he’s a criminal and no matter how harmful his policies are to them.