Sure, there are those who are both, like the Mercers, but for years, people have been saying, “oh, most of the moneyed one percenters don’t really believe in the stuff they’re paying Fox News to spew; they just want their taxes cut.” Well, as we’ve seen, there are true believers in Washington now. Many are influences that are unstable for the economy in general. Some, like Taylor-Greene and DeSantis (though whether he’s a true believer is debatable) have actually threatened or taken action against large corporations who do heinous things like acknowledge the existence of gay people as customers.
So I’m left wondering: will there come a point where the nuts are seriously, actually threatening the global economy (say by wanting to literally and actually imprison their political rivals en masse) and the money behind the madness turns against the rabid nuts they created? If so, what will it take, and who’ll win? After all, money controls politics, but it doesn’t vote directly, and if there are enough voters out there who like the guy spewing the n-word, he’ll get elected no matter how many ads his opponent runs.
IMHO it depends to a small degree on the upcoming midterm and to a large degree on the results of 2024. If Trumpism is defeated both times, even if by close margins, there won’t be enough appetite to try again in 2028. Should both elections go Trump’s way, then it could very well happen. IMHO at that point it would be up to how far Gorsuch, Coney-Barrett, and Kavanaugh are willing to go in smacking down the truly crazy stuff that will be tried. Don’t bother asking about Thomas and Alito, since they’re true believers. If we end up with a split decision (Republicans winning in ‘22 and ‘26, Democrats in ‘24), it’s more likely that we’ll muddle along until Desantis tries in 2028, running on a “Trump got it wrong in ‘24 but I’ll get it right this time” type platform.
I hope so. If the crazy Republicans ever come into serious conflict/make enemies of the Rich…well…my money is on the Rich. The crazy Republicans time of relevance will be limited.
Despite all the cries about ‘Socialism’ and Commie Dems…most Dems are ‘Corporate Democrats’. They don’t actually want to help Joe American. They spout platitudes to them much like mainstream Republicans used to spout Pro-Life platitudes. Just something to keep the edges of the party most away from the other side engaged and voting. It’s all about them corporations…even for most Dems.
First they look for the Trumpists to cut taxes for the rich and then erode Social Security and other programs to be replaced with private sources. If they don’t get that then they turn on the Republicans. They don’t care about the state of the economy as much as you might think. It’s the relative size of their slice of the pie that matters, along with their ability to take a piece of every dollar spent.
Well, that’s why I asked the question: because I’m actually not sure whether there’s a circumstance where the audience would not, or would be slow to, change their minds if the message changed. Like if OANN suddenly talked nonstop about how racism is bad and minorities deserved respect in a desperate attempt to keep progroms from starting, I don’t know if that would have a significant effect.
Sure, but that goes to what you were saying about how the rich folks could just change the message if the results were threatening them. There are certain basic messages that, I think, the stupid people won’t tolerate, and that could lead to some pretty heavy duty wealth-destroying behavior if those people were given power. I think it’s at least a possibility.
I think I saw Jordan (?) Keppler from the Daily Show playing Jan 6 hearing depositions of Ivanka Trump to Trumpers, and them claiming it was just a deep fake. If there is something that would turn them from their masters, I’d kind of enjoy seeing it happen. No, I would enjoy it a lot. Like, buy a bottle of champagne and take the day off enjoy.
I don’t think they will come to conflict, much. The true believers deliver the votes, while the 1% deliver the message. Someone around here once said (and I think it still holds true):
The Republicans have put together a coalition of wealthy people persuaded by economic issues and poor people persuaded by social/religious issues (and poorly educated people persuaded by lies and propaganda).
As American demographics shift, Corporate Republicans are going to be less inclined to offend their diverse customers. The core belief of the crazies is white supremacy and they are not going to take kindly to their rich brethren catering to “others”.
Much of the right’s messaging 2015-2020 was designed to stir up irrational fear of Latin American immigrants. It worked, and we got an administration who deported a lot of those folks and made it harder for others to enter the country. But guess what? The resulting shortage of those folks hurt certain areas of the economy – food processing, agriculture, etc. – and drove up labor costs in almost every sector.
Maybe some of that pain hurt right wing corporate backers, which is why so much of the fear-mongering has shifted in the last couple of years to gays and trans people.
When the unintended consequences of that fear-mongering again hurt right wing corporate backers, they’ll prompt a shift to a different demographic. Without the fear, they have nothing to motivate the base. And I fear they’ll never run out of targets.