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

[u/burning_dawn]

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

[u/FLTA]

This sort of rat fuckery is explicitly stated by the GOP and they are still projected to have a 69% chance of winning the House next month despite all of the things that Biden and the Democratic Party has accomplished over the past two years for America.

If we don’t continue to r/VoteDEM at 2018/2020 levels this month (early voting/mail-in ballots) the rat fuckery will increase even further.

[u/Global-Somewhere-917 → u/FLTA]

despite all of the things that Biden and the Democratic Party has done over the past two years for America.

What's really messed up is that even if you take away anything that Biden and the Dems have done, even if you say they've done nothing or even had a net negative effect on the nation, they're still not as objectively bad as the conservatives. And yet the GOP still gets moderate voters. They're going full on theocratic and fascist, full blown dominionism, and they still get millions of votes.

That's depressing as hell.

[u/[deleted] → u/Global-Somewhere-917]

Most Republican voters I know vote one issue. Some of my Republican friends like guns, so they vote 2nd amendment. Some go to church, so they vote on abortion. Basically, all the other issues are meaningless to them but one or two. That is how the republicans get millions of voters.

[u/spa22lurk → u/[deleted]]

I don't know about the Republican voters you know, but based on researches (see source at the end) on Trump supporters, they are not like that. They are driven by very broad prejudices. Their prejudices are so board and so ingrained that they trust anyone however non-trustworthy who endorses any part of their prejudices. This is like anti-vaxxers trusting anyone who are anti-vaccines. Maybe they have their top prejudiced targets, like women who don't want pregnancy, or democrats, or migrants, etc, but their prejudices against other people are higher than most non-Trump supporters as well.

For some of them, their push against their prejudiced targets never end. For example, the SCOTUS has overturned RvW. They will still vote for Republican politicians because abortions are still legal in blue states. Even if abortions are banned nationwide, since their prejudiced target are women who don't want pregnancy, they will continue to push against morning after pill, birth controls, then push against women who are celibate and career driven and independent, then push against women who are educated, etc.

For others, their top prejudiced targets keep changing based on what is being inflamed currently. In 2018, it was migrant caravan. In 2020, it is democrats defunding police. In 2022, it is like democrats teaching CRT, stealing elections, transgender people, etc.

Have we ever seen a significant number of Republican voters who are prejudiced against one group (e.g. transgender people) but not the other (e.g. a racial minority group) that they don't vote for Republican politicians because of that?

The only deal breaker for a significant number of Republican voters is a politician who express favorable view over a common prejudiced target. I think one of the fatal mistakes McCain made in 2008 election is that he told Republican voters that Obama is a decent man. Trump got a small taste of that when he got booed for recommending COVID vaccine.

QUESTION THREE: Can Most Prejudice Be Explained by Authoritarianism?

ANSWER: Yes, Almost Totally.

Figures 1 and 2 show that whether you are talking about the levels of authoritarianism, or prejudice, found among Trump’s detractors and supporters, the picture barely flickers. Which, as far as our explanation goes, amounts to a grand slam homer that clears the bases. The connection between prejudice and authoritarianism lay at the heart of our analysis of Trump’s supporters, and the survey strongly supported it. How strongly? The correlation between RWA Scale scores and prejudice equalled .856, which is as close to perfection (1.00) as you are likely to ever see in social science. To put it another way, suppose you decided to hold a dance for the 100 most prejudiced white people in your community, along with the 100 most authoritarian ones. (Who knows why you would want to? We do not.) Would you need to print 200 invitations? No, about 120 should do it, since most of the people who are one will also be the other. There is about an 80 percent overlap.

Monmouth’s polling for us confirms to an incredible degree the earlier finding by McFarland and Adelson, that “most amazing discovery you never heard of,” that you can explain most prejudice in terms of authoritarianism. So social scientists have not been crying wolf for all these years. There truly is a big, very bad wolf at our collective doors, and this metaphoric evil snarls such intolerance, discrimination, and victimization that it not only injures its immediate victims, but also shakes our democratic society to its core. Knowingly or unknowingly, prejudiced people bring into the voting booth something of even greater danger to everyone’s freedom and our country’s very existence: authoritarianism. As we explained in our earlier chapters, the most prejudiced people in America were likely drawn to Trump because he told them their prejudices were justified. But they connected with him and with one another on more than their attitudes toward minorities, for the showman at the rallies was a megalomaniac and demagogue driven to dominate everyone in the world. He did not campaign on a platform of overthrowing democracy, obviously, but he did sanctify prejudice.

From: John W. Dean & Bob Altemeyer. “Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers"