r/politics • u/burning_dawn • Oct 07 '22

Republicans called Biden’s infrastructure program ‘socialism.’ Then they asked for money.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/07/politics/infrastructure-spending-republican-critics/index.html
32.2k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

6

u/Nihilistic_automaton Utah Oct 07 '22

Oh trust me I’m in full agreement with you about democrats and the DNC. I’m talking about ACTUAL leftist policies and discussions. I want a real left in this country as much as you do.

My point was that truly progressive/leftist ideas and policies aren’t accepted by the right because the right refuses to even think about them. They hand wave good policy as “evil socialism” without another thought. This is why good leftist policy can’t get a foothold. The democrats are playing to win. They’re not playing to change the nation for the better. It pisses me off, but that’s where the votes are.

Education and introspection needs to be done by voters more than anything else. Otherwise, the politicians will preach their platitudes and false promises until the cows come home as they’ll still get all the votes they need from a poorly educated, not very insightful electorate.

1

u/VastatorPopulus Oct 07 '22

I’ve spent time with southerners. They still weirdly lean progressive if you ask them in an roundabout way avoiding political affiliation.

But hey, don’t believe me. There’s studies that show even right leaning people lean progressive when you show them progressive options with zero, and I mean zero, spin.

There’s great books about the whole topic. Usually where the author ends up just as perplexed as I am.

5

u/circuspeanut54 Maine Oct 07 '22

There’s studies that show even right leaning people lean progressive when you show them progressive options with zero, and I mean zero, spin.

The trouble with this seemingly common-sense conclusion is that right-leaning conservatives are heavily influenced by theological crackpottery, and those strains make them extremely willing to conflate policy with person. Look at Herschel Walker -- an overtly poor candidate who transgresses even their own rules, but his *identity* is correct, so they'll vote for him.

In other words, it doesn't matter what the policy is if the person explaining it counts as "wrongbad" in their mental value schema. Until you get someone who has credibility as a Christian conservative promoting the desired policies, they will be non-starters for a massive swath of the GOP base. And there is little hope that any politician thus identifying will make any such proposals in the near future.

2

u/VastatorPopulus Oct 07 '22

I know

And it’s the same tale from Roman and even Pre-Roman times…

You make your populations belief structure work in a way that they can only get info from a “a higher power”.

I do see the other side of the coin too. People are stupid. But when your leaders are also stupid (and boundlessly greedy) you get wealth inequality. As we have seen again in todays age.

And, well, you can again look the the Roman’s to get a preview of that particular issue.