LightningStrikes posted...
I reiterate my confusion that American swing voters exist.
Hm, do I vote for the big tent party? Nahh this time Ill vote for the fascists.
I don't really know how it works in England, because your parties are to the left of ours in some ways, but to the right of ours in others. But the problem America has is that the majority of our population is fiscally conservative, and the majority of our population is socially liberal, but those majorities don't entirely overlap.
As such, you have one party (the GOP) who is openly fiscally conservative: fewer taxes, cut spending programs (except the military), privatize EVERYTHING. But, this party is also SOCIALLY conservative, and they strongly push policies designed to weaken any group that threats the social hierarchy and keep straight, white men at the top.
Meanwhile, the other party (Democrats) is socially liberal: abortion should be a right, gay marriage should be a right, we should push to fix climate change, there should be more respect towards non-straight white males, particularly in acknowledging that historically, out-groups have been treated like shit in America. But, this party is also portrayed as fiscally liberal (I say portrayed, because in reality, most Democrats are more fiscally conservative, but willing to accept fiscal liberalism if it's sold to them correctly), with an emphasis on higher taxes on the rich, business regulation, and an increase to entitlement programs that might help the whole of the country.
Because of this, you have a situation where a LARGE fucking chunk of Americans think fiscal conservatism will save the day, because ultimately, we're a nation of self-centered assholes who don't want to help anyone else out unless we personally feel like it, and therefore we don't want to pay taxes for things might not directly benefit us. Even though the Dems AREN'T as liberal as they're portrayed by right-wing media, they're still viewed negatively in terms of fiscal policy. Again, I'm not claiming the Dems ARE worse--and in fact they're probably better, as we saw with Liz Truss how going full steam ahead with fiscal conservatism actually fucks things up--just that it's the perception.
But at the same time, most Americans can look at social conservatism and be like "There's nothing wrong with gay marriage/trans rights/abortion/etc." or "well, it doesn't effect me, so I don't see why I should care to regulate what other people do in their private lives".
As such, if it were JUST fiscal policy, people would probably vote for conservatives each and every time. But going back to the Liz Truss comment...implementing conservative fiscal policy doesn't actually help the American people...if anything, it's disastrous to the economy long-term. So the GOP has decided to push HARD on the social conservatism in order to give their voters something tangible that will help them overlook just how little fiscal conservatism actually helps. While that's great for their base, it has led to the GOP drifting FAR far right, with open racism, open sexism, open homophobia, open transphobia, open islamophobia, open anti-semitism, and general open xenophobia becoming the norm for the faces of the party.
MOST people aren't horrible human beings, so they see what the GOP has become and at least question whether they can support that shit. But again, fiscal policy...so you have voters who are torn between supporting social conservatism that is rapidly driving violence towards historically disempowered groups, or supporting fiscal conservatism because their gas prices are too high, and they want to pay fewer taxes, and don't want to pay for "lazy millennials that got art degrees in college". That's where the swing voters come from.