Posted on 01/30/2024 4:30:36 PM PST by Drew68
Conservatives are losing the "don't be weirdos" contest.
One of the main stories of American politics of the last few decades is the wealthy and educated shifting away from the Republican Party and towards the Democrats.
Conservative losses among the upper classes have not been balanced out by gains elsewhere. Republicans have lost the popular vote in 7 of the last 8 presidential elections, showing themselves to be broadly unappealing to most Americans while nonetheless staying competitive due to the unusual quirk of us picking our head of state through the electoral college, which gives disproportionate power to rural areas. Conservatives used to be able to rely on their voters being higher in conscientiousness and more willing to show up during midterm and off-year elections, but that advantage now goes to the Democrats, particularly after Dobbs.
I can’t resist commenting on how the ongoing freakout over the Kansas City Chiefs making the Super Bowl perfectly encapsulates everything that has gone wrong. Taylor Swift may have endorsed Biden in 2020, but as Max Meyer pointed out after attending one of her concerts, everything about her aesthetic and place in the culture is implicitly conservative. Her fans want to be attractive and meet men. They’re not interested in changing their sex or cheering for urban mobs looting the local supermarket. If you simply give them some semblance of normalcy, they’ll be on your side and vote in opposition to the left and what it has become. But instead of that, they get conspiracy theories about the Super Bowl being rigged so Swift can then endorse Biden, along with whatever this is:
Taylor Swift at least has taken some liberal positions. In the case of Travis Kelce, the rage is simply over him cutting commercials for Pfizer and Bud Light.
We can understand Taylor Swift Democrats as men and women comfortable with their birth sex, eager to play the roles traditionally assigned to it, not racist but not feeling particularly guilty about the sins of their country, and who will naturally gravitate towards whichever political coalition comes across as the most normal, willing to let them go about their lives watching football or buying makeup from Sephora. People like this used to be natural conservatives, and especially given the Great Awokening, they still should today. They’re not, mostly because Republicans were able to overturn Roe and went out and created a cult of personality around perhaps the least normal politician the country has ever had.
When you point this out to conservatives, my experience is that they will respond that the left has freaks too. They don’t know what a woman is, worship criminals, and support crazy slogans like defund the police. The key difference, however, is that Democrats did not pick the worst caricature of everything their party stands for and make them their leader. Also, while no Democratic legislature abolished the police, state Republican parties are ensuring that women have to risk their lives and health to deliver doomed pregnancies. Each side has freaks. But the problem with the current Republican Party is that the most unappealing members of the coalition, in this case Trump and pro-lifers, are the ones in charge. Taylor Swift Democrats want to be mothers, but on their own terms, without being forced to destroy their health or give birth to children with horrifying medical problems against their will because they’re unlucky enough to live in the wrong state.
One way to understand the different dynamics here is to notice that when conservatives complain about liberals, they’re often picking on academics like Ibram Kendi or intolerant college students as the worst representatives they can find of the other side. Most people don’t even notice the material that makes the rounds on right-wing media. In contrast, when liberals attack their enemies, they’re better able to make their preferred issues salient by telling the stories of relatable women who have undergone difficult pregnancies, or focusing on Trump himself, as an individual who embodies everything that seems abnormal or defective about conservatives. And no, it isn’t “Trump Derangement Syndrome” to notice he is a uniquely flawed individual, an outlier in the degree to which he is crude, dishonest, and corrupt. The fact that conservatives often won’t admit even this shows what being part of an oppositional culture has done to their brains.
Travis Kelce, left, wearing football pads with an AFC Champion T-shirt and hat that says Super Bowl, kisses Taylor Swift on the field after a game.
White heterosexual couple that drove Republicans crazy because they’re vaxxed
I think that if you asked a typical Republican partisan why smarter and more successful Americans have shifted left, they’d say something about woke colleges indoctrinating people. The problem with this view is that the kind of wokeness that has taken over the Democratic Party remains broadly unpopular. College graduates overwhelmingly oppose reparations and affirmative action, and believe sex is assigned at birth rather than something you choose. It’s true that a college degree is correlated with liberal attitudes on such policies, but Democrats aren’t winning more educated suburbs by running on Critical Race Theory or bringing trans into women’s sports. These positions are hinderances to leftist domination, but Trump and the Dobbs decision have pushed them into the background. Abortion is now far and away the issue that Democrats talk about most in their campaign ads, and they’ve as a result been piling up victories since the Supreme Court sent that issue back to the states.
What many analysts seem not to understand is that most people are paying a lot less attention to politics than they are. If you’re the type who closely follows right-wing media, you will see that Twitter and Fox News provide a nonstop stream of profiles of liberal weirdos. You see the 6’5 man with the receding hairline dominating girls basketball or whatever, and think why can’t everyone else realize how insane liberals have become? Yet, I think for your average voter who’s not paying attention, they’re not necessarily noticing the craziest leftists and connecting them to the Democratic Party. Or maybe they are, but the connection is a lot less clear than the association that Republicans have with their worst elements.
In addition to Trump and abortion, conservatives have created a broader culture of conspiracy thinking that involves a need to politicize everything. Leftists are the side that can find white supremacy in breakfast cereal, but conservatives have somehow managed to make their opponents look sane.
“All the Swifties want is swift abortion,” he said.
Then Swift-bashing reached Fox News in mid-January. The host Jesse Watters suggested the superstar was a Defense Department asset engaging in psychological warfare. He tied Ms. Swift’s political voice with her boyfriend’s Pfizer endorsement to the remarkable success of her Eras tour, which bolstered local economies and landed her on the cover of Time.
“Have you ever wondered why or how she blew up like this?” Mr. Watters wondered on air. “Well, around four years ago, the Pentagon psychological operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting.”
There’s something deeply poetic about this freakout centering around football, the sport that has always served as a symbol of wholesome American normalcy. The old mantra of “the personal is political” always reflected a major electoral weakness of the left. It revealed an inability to have any thoughts or passions that aren’t part of an ideological agenda. Most people don’t care about politics all that much, and feel more positively inclined towards whichever tribe doesn’t try to make them feel guilty about that fact. If you’re watching the AFC Championship game and try to steer the conversation to which players are vaxxed, most sports fans aren’t going to want to talk to you anymore. For a while, liberals were “that guy,” and many of their activists still have this flaw, but conservatives have increasingly neutralized what should be a natural advantage for them, and the way right-wing media is covering the NFL playoffs indicates that if anything the left can now win the contest over who’s more able to just sit back and watch a football game.
I'm sure I probably did. My posting history is here for all to search out.
At any rate, if Trump wins in 2024, it's only because Biden has sucked so bad that millions of Americans hold their nose and vote for him. On the flip side, if Biden wins, it's because millions of American loathed Trump so much that they held their noses and voted for Biden.
2024 epitomizes the South Park election between a giant douche and a turd sandwich.
Libtards often make great music, and I will listen to their music even if they try to tell me how to vote. I don’t care what they think or what they want to tell me. I make up my own mind.
Yep.
Thanks for answering that.
Even if it does reinforce my statement that the 19th Amendment was a huge mistake
Interesting, but an impotent acknowledgement that conservatism has become completely discredited and has been purged from every institution. That is a fundamental shift which all but guarantees a comfortable election victory in 2024 for the Democrats.
Trump did worse with white men than any Republican in nearly 3 decades.
You will scrape the hard rock bottom of any ridiculous “news” cesspool for another bowl of sh!t to feed you NeverTrumper hatred hunger.
Sad!
According to my wife, she was wearing about 7 cosmetic products on her face there, and also some some hair color (note the somewhat darker roots).
Her normal appearances these days appear to be with 8 or 9 products. But the ridiculous part these days is her bright red lipstick that goes at least 1/4” beyond the edges of her lips, like a cartoon character.
But that’s what people want,... fantasy.
Why anyone including Taylor Swift would want to support someone like Biden is beyond me. I don’t hate him as I don’t even know him (nor do I want to) but see absolutely no reason to back him or vote for him based on past performance. By the way,I am well past retirement age in case anyone’s wondering.
Wow, that’s more fake than what MSDNC comes up with.
There should be a mental competency test for voters.
LOL! Whatever happened to South Park, anyway?
>> And even if he wins, I’m not expecting much.
Way to work hard in faith for your team, a-hole.
You don’t want to win. You just want plausible deniability after you go into that secret place and fail to vote for POTUS (or vote for the ‘Rat).
I’ve said here before that the greatest threat to the safety and security of a free people is a single, liberal White female.
At any rate, if Trump wins in 2024, it’s only because Biden has sucked so bad that millions of Americans hold their nose and vote for him. On the flip side, if Biden wins, it’s because millions of American loathed Trump so much that they held their noses and voted for Biden.
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Whoever wins will be in the history books just like all the other Presidents.(It’ll be the 45th President, call your bookie)
When I read information about past Presidents, I’ve never given a shit if my ancestors held their noses.
“To Each Their Own.”
Trump did worse with white men than any Republican in nearly 3 decades.
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I don’t doubt this.
Many white men think like women & act like pussies.
Have you ever seen a white kid hanging out at a university?
Hmmm....
“I am getting so very sick to death seeing this Taylor Ditz in the news every-single-day as if the Messiah has returned to earth”
What news sources are you watching and reading that are so focused on Taylor Swift?
The NY Post, every freakin’ day without fail. I get it delivered to me (I live in NY) and it’s non-stop Taylor Ditz. How about they focus on women serving in the military or doctors, or female cops instead of this freaking attention whore? It’s ridiculous.
This whole article is drivel. Based on a false premise.
No one I know is “freaking out” over Taylor Swift, or her politics. Or Travis Kelsey.
Many are wondering why it is such a big deal that Taylor Swift is dating Mr. Kelsey. That’s about it. The Swift fans are the ones who are making this a big deal. Kelsey fans couldn’t care less.
Usual B.S. Make a false statement as fact.
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