The Partisan Divide on Issues

[Bob Butler 54]

(05-17-2020, 08:28 PM)Kinser79 Wrote: Good thing you're not in charge of words then.  

I’ve generally been of the Republican / conservative / red against Democrat / progressive / blue labeling school. No reason to change now. If they call themselves conservative, that’s good enough for me. If you have suddenly become a fan of the leader of that faction, you are stuck with the label.

But I sympathize with the dictionary definition of the word being at odds with their actual policies. The problem with being the party of the elites is that there are not enough elites to win an election. You have to grab onto enough populist issues to actually win. Thus you get a weird connections. In the late Gilded Age they were isolationists, but by Bush 43’s time they were Neo Cons pushing Neo Colonialism. In Lincoln’s time they were pushing the northern Robber Baron perspective and black rights. By Nixon’s and Reagan’s time it was the Southern Strategy. In short, they have flip flopped so many times over the years that their approach of winning at all costs has not left them with much in the way of a one word comprehensive strategy.

But the key is that you are an owner. You know who butters your bread. You have always favored the elites over the people. That puts you on the red side, and the red side. It is all natural for one who values green paper more than grandma.