A global warming reference?
As the lake rises, what happens to the boats that are tethered — by gender, skin color or general “otherness” — to very short anchor chains?
It comes down to tbis:
Democrats see themselves as servants of the people who derive their authority from the consent of the governed.
Republicans see themselves as rulers of the people, who have been ordained by God to command those to whom they are superior.
They may act that way, but I doubt they see themselves that way.
A lot of the religious ones seem to feel exactly that. And they make up a bigger part of the GOP elected officials every year.
They definitely see themselves that way. They’ve endorsed the divine right of kings in all but name to justify why Loser Donald should be president. A significant percentage of Republicans and evangelicals believe that God decides the outcome of elections. Given the choice between the Constitution and Biblical Sharia, they choose the latter every time. They tried to overthrow democracy because they lost an election.
They clearly don’t see the people as the source of their authority or the body they’re obligated to serve.
I think part of what you see that made them look more similar than different 10+ years ago was that both parties tended to move toward the center as elections got less local. And in fact there were often situations where a Democrat from somewhere like Texas might be more conservative overall than a Republican from somewhere like Massachusetts.
Typically the main policy positions have ostensibly been as follows (up until about 20:
GOP/Republican: Basic conservatism- the notion that there needs to be a justifiable reason to disrupt the status quo was a big thing.
Democrat: More liberal- the government, as the organization with the most money and the ability to actually enact laws, is the best vehicle for solving problems/fixing issues.
Of course, this sets up a fundamental conflict- Democrats would say “This needs to be fixed”, and Republicans would say “No it doesn’t”, or “The cost isn’t worth it” or something along those lines.
The problem is, that both sides have sort of diverged from the strictly political solving of policy problems. Republicans have gone off into thinking that maybe there should be change, only in the reverse direction- to make things the way they used to be, rather than confining themselves to resisting change. And the Democrats have gone from just trying to solve problems, to endorsing what amounts to a social change agenda as well.
What’s the difference between these two things? Isn’t “social change” designed to “solve problems?”
Well, when Republicans win anyway.
One Republican in particular:
…27% of U.S. adults believe Trump’s election reflects God’s will in the sense that the 2016 outcome must be part of God’s overall plan…
Anecdotally, I have a former coworker who was despondent on Favebook in November 2020 that God must have decided it was time for America to end and that was why He made Biden win.
I would have a hard time not telling your co-worker that it’s all his fault for all that porn he watches.
It insane verses sanity. That’s where we are.
And if the sane are driven insane by their fight against the insane, then the insane win.
And that’s why it’s incorrect to refer to Republicans as conservative. That behavior is reactionary.