The two main parties say the other has betrayed its principles. Their switch, to appeal to those not once seen as their traditional base, is something to behold.
Democrats point to President Donald Trump’s tariffs and ask what happened to the Republican understanding of the merits of free trade? Republicans also now favor other economic policies once of the Left, such as price fixing for “fairness” and opposition to reform of entitlements that are bankrupting the country.
The Left accuses the GOP additionally of abandoning the rule of law because Republicans reject the fantasy that every illegal immigrant should get a court hearing before being deported. This is a canard I’ve dealt with elsewhere.
But while Democrats are right that the GOP dramatically changed its economic thinking, it’s wrong to say Republicans have completely broken from their past. A thread runs on the Right from Reaganite emphasis on freedom through the tea party rebellion against big government to Trumpy appeal to the little guy sick of woke classes bossing him about what he may believe and how he must live his life.
To understand why ordinary Americans, especially of the working class and increasingly of racial minorities, favor the GOP, it is more instructive to look at the Democrats’ radical metamorphosis. The blue party could once plausibly, though not convincingly to me, argue that it was on the side of the little guy. Who believes that anymore? Certainly not voters last November.
Democrats used to say racial discrimination was a bad thing, but now they demand racial discrimination to address past wrongs, and they ascribe immutable moral attributes, oppressor and oppressed, on the basis of skin color.
Democrats used to promote and protect women in sports, notably through Title IX, but now they are demolishing women’s sports by forcing them open to men who are bigger, faster, stronger, and more aggressive than women.
Democrats used to argue against “intolerant” moral certainty. This gave rise to the deprecating phrase “moral relativism.” They rejected whatever was “judgmental” and insisted that our culture suspend this high human faculty. Now, however, instead of rejecting the very idea of right and wrong, the Left insists that anyone who disagrees with it is simply evil. Today’s Left is steeped in moral certainty, with no debate allowed.
Democrats used to disapprove of taking from the poor to give to the rich, but now they demand that those with less money subsidize the spending of the wealthy by eliminating the cap on state and local tax deductions. This is a mechanism that benefits the wealthy in Democrat-run states by forcing federal taxpayers nationwide to pick up the tab for blue-state fiscal improvidence.
SUPREME COURT TACKLES GENDER CONVERSATION THERAPY
Democrats used to want to boost working-class wages and conditions — that is what labor unions used to exist for — and they opposed mass, low-skill immigration because it erodes the earnings of Americans at the bottom of the economic pyramid. But now Democrats and the Left say opposition to mass immigration, even when it is illegal, is racist. The lower classes that were once part of the Democratic base can lump it.
The list goes on. If Democrats want to win elections again, they could start by looking at what they used to believe and lost — or threw away.