They've Got It All Backwards!

Hey Everyone!! :-)

Today's post is something I almost feel silly for writing because it seems like it should be obvious. But with all the nonsense being spewed on corporate media about Democrats needing to be conservative in conservative parts of the country, I thought I should go ahead and say this.

The parts of this country that are conservative are, for the most part, only socially conservative. Most of the people who live in those parts of the country are rather poor, so they are not, generally speaking, economically conservative. What does that mean? It means they want to keep women as voiceless chattel with no say over what happens to their own bodies. And they want to pretend that people in the LGBTQ+ community are either mentally ill or evil, even though that's patently absurd and everyone, including the people in conservative parts of the country, know it. And they are afraid that people of color might infect them with cooties if they're given equal rights.

Does all of that make those people assholes? Yep, it sure does. But they're assholes who vote. And, as I said, they're also generally poor assholes. So, they also would like to tax the rich at higher rates so that their kids can go to schools that don't have leaky roofs and do have up-to-date textbooks. And they would like healthcare that won't bankrupt them that will provide the care they and their families need. And they would like the air they and their kids breathe and the water they drink not to be polluted with poisons from unregulated industry. And they would like to earn a wage they can support their families on. Because while they may be assholes, they aren't, for the most part, masochistic assholes.

So, what does all this mean? It means if you give them two parties that both want to let Wall Street fuck over the rest of the country and allow corporations to be unregulated and allow insurance companies to bleed people dry and then kill them anyway, but one of those parties will deny basic human rights to women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and people of color, then they're going to go with the party that hates who they hate. Obviously.

But if you give them one party that doesn't hate who they hate, and won't enforce bigotted policies, but will ensure they have good schools by taxing the wealthy at a fair rate, and will ensure they have affordable healthcare by instituting a Medicare for All system, and will make sure the land they own and live on remains safe for human habitation through strict regulation of industry, and will make employers pay a living wage, well, then they might just vote for that party in spite of their disagreement on social issues. Because, for a lot of people, loyalty to their wallets comes first.

Does that mean that everyone will vote in their own financial best interests when it means they don't get to legislate their bigotry? Nope. Some of them will still bite off their noses to spite their faces. But we don't need all of them, we just need enough of them to win elections. And, yes, I realize even conservative, corporate Democrats aren't usually as bad on economic issues as Republicans. But they're still bad. And if they were actually good on economic issues, instead of being less bad, then they'd have a better chance of using enlightened self-interest to win over people who disagree with them on social issues.

And, yes, obviously not everyone who lives in a conservative part of the country thinks this way. Hell, not everyone who lives in a conservative part of the country is even conservative. I'm talking about broad generalities, here. But enough of them think this way to have kept this country in the dark ages for the last forty years. I'm thinking it's time for a new strategy.

Peace!