Saturday, July 31, 2021

Right Wing Populism

The Trump era brought out populist tactics. These will rule in red states for decades. There is not really any campaign strategy of "things to do" to improve our lives. Taxes and all the things the right hate are there as fundamental issues, but the focus is on a gut feel against LIBERALS and every single thing they propose. You don't have to list those things in detail, merely label them as socialism. So this is what Trump has done. He funneled all the Foxnews concepts into actual campaign slogans. Politics for the right will be very simple from now on. An example is Teddy Daniels, who is running in Pennsylvania and labels all things liberal as "elitist bullshit." All things to do with  culture, multiculture and all that are just bullshit. The hatred of thing liberal is clear from his campaign ad. You can google for it yourself.


Expanding from Teddy, there are a few things shared by all of the right wing white working class. They think they get less from government than they pay in taxes. This may be true partly, as a lot of federal tax goes to nonproductive things like the military. (Like the trillion wasted in Afghanistan). But they certainly gain a whole lot from state and local government. They also believe that OTHER people get a lot more from the government. These would be the elite, who get culture and education and even jobs from the federal government. The white working class may do too, as the roads and so on are contracted by state and federal government. But that is never considered. The other people who get "free stuff" are minorities. Foreigners also should get not a penny from the government. Life for the trumpster is a zero sum game. You might get something little from government, like roads, but mostly anything someone else gets cannot come back to you as any benefit. Or for the community. Why do they even bother with towns? Just live in a trailer in the desert.

Returning to Daniels in PA,there is a more traditional Republican in that PA number 8 district, Jim Bognet. He got 48% in 2020 and lost. The theory to win, and get all the Trump people backing, is to run the more aggressive populist. The "real" Republican in any district that was not 100% behind Trump is faced with the possibility of being "primaried" out by Trump-minded forces in the state and PACs. The new populists do not need to be real politicians. They simply need to make dog-whistle statements week after week about "open borders" and other standard themes. And then vote NO on everything the Democrats propose.

Once some of these people then get picked as candidate, the 2022 election themes will be the same as under MAGA. Now there are additional "freedoms" that will come up, conspiracy theories about vaccines and all the possible QAnon themes.