So it looks like the Republicans are going to get their tax plan through both houses (29% approval). Shortly after getting rid of Net Neutrality (17% approval). While the last major partisan push was the afforadable care act replacement (12% approval).
One would think that just by chance there would be some portions of the GOP partisan agenda that would have broad popular support, and that these would be the focus when trying to prove that they can successfully govern. Instead they seem to be pushing an agenda that in many cases even the majority of their own party opposes.
There are of course some popular things that got passed (say Hurricane relief) but those were mostly bi-partisan and not purely Republican. I’m talking about party line votes where the majority of Americans support the Republican side.
So the questions for debate are.
Am I correct in my assessment or is it just that living in a Liberal bubble I only see the unpopular parts of their agenda? Counter examples welcome.
Why are they choosing these unpopular proposals rather than pandering to the masses.
What if any are going to be the consequences of this going forward.
The GOP keep winning elections, so the public have to like them on some level.
But IMO, voters don’t really like republicans agenda, they just like the concept that republicans represent (morally superior white people trying to protect their privileged status in society. In theory, low taxes and a free market too).
But as far as policy that is actually popular, I’m at a loss. The GOP is nakedly plutocratic, and that is their agenda. Tax cuts and deregulation for the rich, tax hikes for everyone else, benefit cuts for the middle class/working class/poor. Thats not a popular agenda in a society where 90%+ of people aren’t upper middle class or wealthier.
Suffice it to say, I don’t know. I can’t think of a policy issue that is pure GOP that the democrats oppose that is popular with voters (that is actual government policy).
Maybe school vouchers. Letting people pick which public or private school they want to go to. But thats not a strictly GOP vs Dem issue. I think dems are more open to it if you include public schools in the voucher program, while the GOP prefers only private schools to be voucherized.
Restricting abortion is popular with a large % of the public, but so is making it easier to get abortion. The public are pretty divided. So I don’t know if that counts either. Last time I checked, it was about 60-40 in favor of legalization in most cases.
So that’s why Putin keeps winning elections! And that was why Robert Mugabe was able to stay in power so long too, right? Don’t even get me started on how beloved the Kim family is in North Korea!
The two areas where I agree with Trump are infrastructure and the space program. Trump has come out in favor of expanding both of these and, in principle, I support him on these issues. In practice, I worry that he supports these ideas because he sees them as a source of fat government contracts for his political allies.
People can deny it, but the reason the GOP win is because of race and ego. The GOP tell white people ‘you are the morally superior backbone of america, and the authentic Americans. You are too hard working, smart and self disciplined to need government assistance or need the government to tell you what to do. Plus as white (men), you are the best this country has to offer. We will assure your position as the smartest, hardest working, most authentic, most talented people this country has to offer are recognized and we will ensure you don’t slide down the social ladder’.
People eat that shit up, especially people who are only 1-2 rungs above latino immigrants and poor black people on the socioeconomic ladder. It isn’t a coincidence that 70-90% of whites in the south voted democratic for 100 years after the Republican party pushed for abolitionism, the civil war and reconstruction. But in the 1960s when the democratic party pushed for civil rights for blacks, now 70-90% of whites in the south are republican.
People keep looking for some deeper meaning to politics. There isn’t one. Race and ego (and abortion, and fear of threats) is a huge component of what keeps the GOP afloat. That is how they can push policy agendas that only have 20% support from the public, because of the massive support they get by running on racial identity politics and egoism of their voters.
But my point is that, people don’t vote GOP because they understand or care about complex nuanced policy issues. They vote GOP because the GOP tells their voters that they are superior and they will cement their position at the top.
The examples you give have massive voting fraud (although even with the fraud, Putin is deeply popular). the GOP win elections that while not 100% fair (due to gerrymandering, voter suppression, the electoral college, etc), are still reasonably fair.
The GOP is strong if the concepts are vaguely worded. A large segment of the United States populace opposes SJWs, BLM and political correctness, for instance, and likes terminology like “a strong border,” “law and order,” etc.
In vague terms, I think it’s still a country that likes conservatism over liberalism. But when it comes to specific, well-defined policies, then liberalism tends to win the day.
Yes, good point. However supposedly one reason the housing market keeps booming is competetion to get into good schools. A voucher program would take some pressure off the housing market, resulting in more affordable housing.
However the dems, when they do endorse vouchers, endorse public school vouchers. The GOP, like you said, push for vouchers as a way to push private religious school.
Truly doubt this. What makes housing booms is one thing only: good jobs. I feel like an expert, because I’ve been living in the SF Bay Area for 60 years. Schools have zero to do with it becoming the most unaffordable place to live the USA. A million dollars gets you a very ordinary suburban house here.
Unless you are talking about retirement meccas, and that would be low col and weather. Not, obviously, schools.
What nonsense. Gaining a bare plurality of voters in an election is not an indication that one party is the party “the public” likes. This is the sort of self-delusional thinking that many Democrats insist upon engaging in, and it’s part of why they are at an all-time low in their control of American Government post-Civil War.
Let’s take the tax bill. How popular is “tax reform”? It’s quite popular, I would imagine; almost EVERYONE would love to have their taxes revamped in an intelligent way. Between the two parties, the Republicans are more closely identified with the idea of reforming taxes. So that part of the “Republican agenda” is quite popular.
But, of course, the devil is in the details. Maybe the Republicans are going to shoot themselves in the foot with this bill, because angry hordes of middle-class voters will find their taxes went up, or stayed substantially the same, and the result will be comparable to the way the Democrats shot themselves in the foot in 2009 with the Affordable Care Act (another example of a very popular idea, health care coverage for everyone, that was implemented in a way that lacked popularity). But if that doesn’t happen, if the masses of voters in most of the country continue to return Republican Representatives and Senators to Congress, one might conclude that the supposed unpopularity of the tax bill was over-blown.
Except that those are both empty promises, as the budget has been gutted. I don’t give a crap about space but infrastructure is direly needed. Any Dem would agree with that, and also be willing to allot tax money for it, which no Republican would.
I disagree. I think the way people vote is a significant indicator of what political party they prefer. And conservative Republicans need to deny this obvious truth because they don’t want to admit that the base of their political power is manipulating the system rather than public approval.
I feel like I’m missing something… Trump cut the budget for NASA by 3 percent (not reduced growth by 3%, I mean cut $500 million from the agency) and cut the Department of Transportation by 13%. Then he talked about going to Mars and rebuilding infrastructure.
Out of curiosity, is it the cuts that appeal to you? Or are you talking just about the speeches he gives about going to Mars and building new roads?
However, I don’t know how you separate out the local from national effects. In San Francisco all housing is more expensive, but people aren’t moving to SF for better schools. They are moving for better jobs. However within SF, I wouldn’t be surprised if people are moving to get into good schools.
Perhaps people move to a locality due to good jobs or culture, but they move within a locality due to things like crime, good schools, commutes to work, etc.
I said that I agree with Trump in principle. Which means I agree with the things he has said about how America should be putting more resources into infrastructure and space.
Trump said something and then revealed he was lying by doing the opposite? No surprise there. I knew he was dishonest which is one of the many reasons I didn’t vote for him.
Your original assertion was that the housing market was booming because of competition to get into good schools. I’m not seeing any evidence for that. Also, if you give “vouchers” that are only good in public schools, then they are not vouchers. That would be a different program and wouldn’t entail the concept of vouchers.