I don’t know that they’re so much creating those fears, so much as they’re taking full advantage of the latent fear of a certain segment of the population. Specifically, white Baby-boomers who have been afraid of crime since the 1980s, and who haven’t really got the message that things aren’t like they were, and have been steadily declining since the early 1990s.
There was also a lot of breathless news coverage that convinced them that mostly inner-city, low-income phenomena like carjackings, violent gangs, thieving crackheads, etc… were a thing in the predominantly white, middle class suburbs. Or that once they left that immediate area, that all those things were a real and present threat. Which has always been absurd, but the idea of those things terrified them. And the fact that politicians portrayed it as black-on-white crime, or less often as hispanic-on-white crime, only played to their fear of minorities.
So now, after 30 some-odd years of that, they and the older Gen-Xers are absolutely convinced that this stuff is true, has always been true, and is something that needs to be safeguarded against.
As far as the poor economy goes, I think they’re just playing up the pain people are feeling because of post-pandemic high inflation, and making the specious claim that it’s a sign of a poor economy. And people are buying it, because they’re feeling the pinch at the grocery store and gas pump, even though unemployment is very low, and there’s plenty of economic activity going on. Eventually (hopefully) wages will catch up with inflation, and everything will seem more normal than it does at the current moment.
A former member of our local Republican committee is a married gay man. He resigned from the committee because they weren’t MAGA enough for him. He’s a raving racist and misogynist.
I know several Black Republicans who are not just anti abortion, they are incredibly anti-equality for women. Believe that women are ordained by God to serve men. To be meek and modest. And of course homosexuality is completely intolerable to them. If they could they’d be extrajudicially killing anyone suspected of being gay.
So yes, if you feed someone’s Big Hate, you can get them to ignore the planks in the party platform that dehumanize them. Tale as old as time.
Heck, I’ve just been at a family gathering with my Catholic family of immigrants to Canada of South Indian ancestry who claim that they are of Portuguese (we have Portuguese family names) not South Asian descent. One of them successfully sued her employer for racial discrimination, but the complaint reads that she was discriminated against not because she was Asian, but because the employer [mistakenly?] believed she was Asian.
This! Race, creed, color, or national origin is no barrier to individuals coming together politically who share philosophies that are textbook examples of some form of '-ist" beliefs and behaviors.
I mean in the past 3-4 years, not over time. We’ve seen some pretty dramatic price raises on a lot of stuff recently, and people are groaning about it.
It also helps that they just lie about the socially oppressive and discriminatory policies. It’s always, “No! Of course we don’t want to ban abortion! Of course we don’t want to cut Social Security! Of course we don’t want to disenfranchise minority voters! Of course we won’t overturn gay marriage! Of course we won’t cut Medicare!”
So some people accept the lies, because they’re already inclined towards wanting the business-friendly environment, and believing the lie lets them get that.
To a certain extent, they could gain some votes. Why do I think so? IMHO it’s because the fundamental principle of MAGA is the desire for an authoritarian government. Yes, in this particular case the authority in question is overwhelmingly white cis and hetero, but underneath all that it’s the authoritarianism that makes the movement what it is, and there’s no innate reason for a Black or LGBTQ person to not be authoritarian. They may prefer a different authority than the typical MAGA voter, but authoritarians are authoritarians, and in the end their common enemy is liberals and small d democrats. Some of them may end up deciding they care more about the authoritarian aspect of their identity than being a minority.
[quote=“RitterSport, post:13, topic:1000002, full:true”]
Inflation and crime are both down. Is there an increase in carjackings? [/quote]
Yes, carjackings are much more common recently – since car thefts are down. Because it used to be pretty easy to hot-wire a car parked outside a store and be gone before the driver came back out, but now with all the electronics and ignition locks, you really need to have the car key/fob to drive the car away, so you wait till the driver comes out loaded down with packages, and threaten with a knife or gun to get the key/fob (and also their wallet & cell phone).
So our designed security/anti-theft systems have discouraged car theft, thus resulting in more carjackings.
Apparently, wages are up over 24% over that time (cite). Since I don’t want to use up another gift link on a Krugman article, here’s the quote:
Inflation did surge in 2021-22, although this surge has mostly subsided. But most workers’ earnings are up in real terms. Over the past four years, wages of nonsupervisory workers, who account for more than 80 percent of private employment, are up by about 24 percent, while consumer prices are up less, around 20 percent.
Fair enough… then why the constant moaning and groaning about making ends meet, prices being high, and so forth? That seems to be a constant refrain both online and in person.
I feel like there’s something that isn’t being said (or is) that’s confusing the issue in society in general.
Some of it is that right-wing media is relentlessly negative on the economy and normal media tries to be “balanced” - “unemployment remained low, but not all the news is good”.
Part of it is that people feel like they deserve the raises they get, but inflation is eating up their hard-earned gains.
Because these moaning and groaning folks are digesting a constant stream of media that tells them to not believe their lying eyes. That the economy is doing terribly. That they themselves are not doing well financially.
And many people, being financially naive, believe what the man in the moving picture box tells them, rather than the evidence in their own paychecks.
Between what Russia is doing to Ukraine and what is happening in Gaza, the world feels like it’s on eggshells. Add to that, we have a big election this year, so people are nervous about what the future is going to look like. So I think a lot of folks are in a wait and see mode.
Plus, of course, the 20% and 24% are just averages. There will still be some folks whose financial situation has, in fact, gotten worse over the past four years. And they’ll be sure to tell you that.