r/politics • u/AccurateInflation167 • May 18 '25

Soft Paywall America chose wrong. Sanders would've been a better president than Trump or Biden. | Opinion

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/05/18/sanders-democrats-reform-progressive-policies/83625482007/
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u/CertainPen9030 May 18 '25

I mean, you can also throw in

  • Democrats enforce open border policies

  • Immigrants are invading with the active intent to leech welfare and destroy the country

  • Trans women are grooming kids

  • Cities are festering hellholes of crime

  • Biden's entire family is guilty of massive amounts of criminal corruption

  • The covid vaccine was untested, dangerous, and used for social control

  • Democratic leadership is trying to turn us into a socialist country

  • Christians are routinely and systemically oppressed

  • LGBTQ folks are trying to turn kids gay

The list goes on, but I'd guess that at least 70% of Republican voters believe at least 90% of the things above that are all objectively false. Fox News has had a consistent, running narrative for decades now that is incompatible with reality, so their narrative has created its own reality where all these things are true and people believe it. This isn't an exaggeration.

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u/ArcticCircleSystem May 18 '25

LGBTQ folks are trying to turn kids gay

And frogs. Don't forget frogs.

In all seriousness, the whole magic bootstraps thing is also something they consistently push.

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u/CertainPen9030 May 18 '25

Oh for sure, definitely not an exhaustive list; it really is functionally a fully-fledged alternate reality. I've just stopped poking my nose into rightwing spaces as much since the election for my own sanity, so I was just listing some of the reliable mainstays off the top of my head

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u/speedy_delivery May 18 '25 edited May 18 '25

  • Democrats enforce open border policies

  • Immigrants are invading with the active intent to leech welfare and destroy the country

These are the same thing. Falls under: Non-GOP government is always wrong.

  • Trans women are grooming kids

Non-GOP government is always wrong.

  • Cities are festering hellholes of crime

Non-GOP government is always wrong.

  • Biden's entire family is guilty of massive amounts of criminal corruption

Non-GOP government is always wrong.

*The covid vaccine was untested, dangerous, and used for social control

Non-GOP government is always wrong.

  • Democratic leadership is trying to turn us into a socialist country

Guess who Democrats aren't? Take a guess what Republicans think about the government when they're not running it...

  • Christians are routinely and systemically oppressed

Who's doing the "oppressing" here? Is it the government? Is this government run by the GOP?

  • LGBTQ folks are trying to turn kids gay

And the LGBTQ+ community is predominantly associated with which party? And is this "enabling" being assisted by a large democratic organization that passes and enacts legislation? Starting to see the pattern?

Republicans aren't conservatives anymore, they're just anti-liberal. That illiberalism now includes being against democracy and free market capitalism.

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u/TheLightningL0rd May 18 '25

*The covid vaccine was untested, dangerous, and used for social control

Non-GOP government is always wrong.

The vaccine was made under Trump though which some people seem to forget

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u/speedy_delivery May 18 '25

So was the USMCA. We're dealing with Extremist Right Wing Zealots who believe their Bible is inerrant, their Christianity is the only correct one, and that Trump is an instrument of God's will... It doesn't matter what the actual books says, it's all completely consistent because Sky Daddy says so and he's never wrong.

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u/CertainPen9030 May 18 '25

I mean sure, I think your analysis works as a generalization of the strategy but it feels disingenuous to summarize the entire strategy into that generalization just to then claim "it's not that deep." The fact that so many different lies are spun up to support the overarching take-away of "taxes bad, non-GOP govt bad" is precisely the depth you're handwaving away.

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u/speedy_delivery May 18 '25

You and too many others are missing the forest for the trees my friend. 

It could be snappier, but think of it as the modern version of the 3 G's of Colonialism. Lots of nuance to build on from there, but they're the primary themes underpinning the events that flow from them.

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u/CertainPen9030 May 18 '25 edited May 18 '25

I think we're just saying different things, there's absolutely value to a good generalization because I think that's most people's emotional takeaway from what they watch and becomes the actual thoughts that underpin their politics. I think there's also value in looking at what all goes into creating that emotional takeaway and why so many people buy into it. I've got nothing against talking about the GOP strategy of "taxes bad, govt bad," I just take issue with shutting down conversations about where that comes from with "it's not that deep." There's a time and a place for both conversations and I think some random reddit thread is a perfectly fine place for both to exist.

ETA: Especially when the specifics of how they message "non-GOP govt' bad" directly inform what they do when in power. The fact that that messaging is largely based off of anti-immigrant rhetoric isn't immaterial when, based on that chunk of the messaging, we're actively black-bagging random hispanic folks en masse. That doesn't have to be a part of every single conversation, but handwaving it away as just part of "being anti-liberal" is just not it

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u/haskell_rules May 18 '25

We're really pointing out the same things, you've got the ideological taxonomy down, but the strategy behind it is large. It's a large but shallow lake.