The Switcheroos of the Two Parties

American Thinker ^ | 26 Oct, 2022 | Victor Davis Hanson

[MtnClimber]

The party of old left-wing progressives has become one of rich regressives. And once country-club Republicans are becoming a party of middle-class populists.

Our two parties have both changed, and that explains why one will win, and one lose in the midterm elections.

The old Democrats have faded away after being overwhelmed by radicals and socialists.

Moderates who once embraced Bill Clinton’s opportunistic “third way” are now either irrelevant or nonexistent.

Once considered too wacky and socialist to be taken seriously, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the performance-art “squad,” the radicals of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and her hard progressive wing are today’s Democratic Party kingpins.

The alienating radicals of Antifa and Black Lives Matter often serve as the new party’s shock troops on the streets. They opportunistically appear to push the party to embrace no-bail laws, defunding the police, and the destruction of the fossil fuel industry.

Since none of those positions poll even close to 50 percent with the public, the Democrats routinely either slur their opponents as racists, nativists, and climate denialists or obsess on another Trump psychodrama distraction from the Russia collusion hoax to the Mar-a-Lago raid.

What “blue dog” centrists are left in the Democratic Party either keep mum or, like Tulsi Gabbard, flee in disgust.

Donald Trump also recalibrated the Republican Party and helped to turn it into a nationalist-populist movement that would rather win rudely than lose politely. The MAGA agenda pushed Jacksonian deterrence rather than unpopular nation-building abroad. It finally focused on fair rather than just free trade. Republicans now unite in demanding only legal immigration and promoting domestic investment rather than globalist outsourcing and offshoring.

In response, many of the old Bush-Romney country-club wing left in disgust. Others licked their wounds as fanatical NeverTrump something or others.

[MtnClimber]

Leftism was always about elitism and treating constituents as if they were farm animals to be sheared for the benefit of the elite.

[MtnClimber]

VDH ping

[Navy Patriot]

VDH is a dependable god read.

[allendale]

Its really quite simple. The Democratic Party has openly embraced Marxism and is an existential danger to the American nation and its people.

[Navy Patriot]

Oops, sorry for the misspelling.

VDH is particularly GOOD this time.

[iamgalt]

MSM/Entertainment/Education are all fellow travelers with these leftists. All that matters is the D. We may win the House and maybe just maybe the Senate but those institutions will keep it close

[Codeflier]

I have been saying this for years. The party of the ultra wealthy is the Democratic Party. The party of the working class is the Republican Party.

He left out how the Democratic Party is now the party of war and nation building, and the Republican party is moving to resist conflicts that don’t directly impact America.

[lucky american]

I’m sorry Republicans haven’t changed. They are still the party of rich elite. I am not really a republican but a conservative republican and my values have never changed.

[ClearCase_guy]

Not quite this topic — but related, I think — my brother says that “everyone knows” the parties switched places decades ago.

If you look at history (he tells me) it might “appear” that the Democrats were behind the KKK, and Jim Crow, and segregation, but that’s misleading. It also may “appear” that the Republicans freed the slaves and supported civil rights for many decades, but that is also misleading.

You see: the parties switched places, maybe around 1965 or something, and all the Democrats deserve to take credit for all the good things that the Republicans did. And the Republicans need to be blamed for all the bad things that the Democrats did. Because the Democrats are the Good Guys.

[packagingguy]

Hope Mitch doesn’t read this, it would burst his bubble.

[dead]

Yes, they teach that nonsense in intro political college courses and liberals repeat it to each other. Whenever somebody claims "all the racists went to the Republicans in the late sixties" I ask them to name them. Did Robert Byrd? Did Bull O'Connor? George Wallace? Al Gore. Sr.?

No. Why would they leave the Democrat Party to join the party that voted in greater numbers for the civil rights legislation? Of course they wouldn't and didn't.

All those guys were racist Democrats till the day they died. Byrd went onto to become the Senate leader for the Dems all the way into the 90s! Not the 50s - the 90s! Before he was the Democrat Senate leader he was the Grand Kleagle of the KKK!

Democrats are very gullible and will repeat what they are told without applying any logic or factual research.

[pepsi_junkie]

I’m sorry Republicans haven’t changed. They are still the party of rich elite. I am not really a republican but a conservative republican and my values have never changed.

I'm with you. The dems always were the party of fat cats too, just different fat cats (new money) than the republicans (old money). Now they have blended into being just two sides of the same single-party system and Trump has made them openly show this as they both are working overtime to protect their cushy system from the masses getting any foothold in the door with representatives that aren't on their payroll.

The GOP would rather see Bernie Sanders or AOC as President than Trump or Kari Lake or any other candidate with a populist bent. 100% fact.

[MtnClimber]

I have been told this by a leftist before. Same exact switcheroo story. I asked him why it is that today the democRATs still want slavery? This time everyone is to be a slave to the state under socialism/communism. He just sat there with a blank look on his face.

[texas booster]

Ping! Out to the Victor Davis Hanson list

Compare the income profiles of voters, whether by ZIP codes or congressional districts. A once lunch-bucket carrying, union member Democratic Party has become the enclave of three key constituencies. 

First, there is the subsidized and often inner-city poor. 

Second, the meat of the party, is the upscale, bicoastal professional and suburban credentialed classes. 

Third, the real rulers of the party are the hyper-rich of Big Tech, Wall Street, Hollywood, the corporate boardroom, the administrative state, the media, and the legal world. Almost all these institutions have lost public confidence and poll miserably. Their cocooned leaders are never subject to the ramifications of their own often unworkable policies.

Another great article by the great one himself!

FR Index of his articles: Victor Davis Hanson on FR

Town Hall: Victor Davis Hanson on Town Hall

American Greatness: Victor Davis Hanson on American Greatness

His website: Victor Davis Hanson

Please let me know if you want on or off this new VDH ping list.

As a reminder, Professor Hanson has asked that we do not post the full article of his writings. Thank you for following the link to finish his article.

[V K Lee]

Mitch has a bubble?
It was thought he had only a shell.

[Jim Noble]

“ Donald Trump also recalibrated the Republican Party and helped to turn it into a nationalist-populist movement that would rather win rudely than lose politely”

The Republican Party is no such thing. It is what it always has been.

[dfwgator]

Trump is not a populist, just because the media says so.

[packagingguy]

Good one.

[subterfuge]

Uugh. Not exactly an uplifting article and nothing every FReeper doesn’t already know.