Maybe, just maybe we chuck the phrase I have heard conservatives use my entire life. “People vote in their self-interest.” Joe Scarborough even went so far as to describe that as being “as it should be”.
I have been reflecting a lot over the past several years about the political differences between myself and my Republican parents. Post divorce, I have two sets of parents who were all professionals and business owners. Parenthetically, I should add that I am Gen X and they are all Boomers. All four have a pretty strong history of Republican votes.
One of my earliest memories and constant reminders growing up from my father was that I should vote like he does when I grew up for my own self-interest. He probably held back my leftward lean an extra two or three years with that move. It’s not that it worked as an argument. It’s just how he chose to parry a young man’s growing liberalism.
He married a multi generation Republican from West Virginia. I’m talking about a family that campaigned, campaigned, for Nixon against JFK. And that story is told proudly. So, obviously, this is the greatest friction point in the family. We do not agree on much and occasionally that extends to the agreement not to fight about it. Not a Trumper but def voted for him.
Mom’s the most reasonable of the bunch. Truth is, she’s always acted like a Democrat. Wouldn’t even want to guess how she votes. Doesn’t factor into the discussion. She is engaged, aware, and compassionate. Would that we all were. Her husband, while a good man, is pretty much a lost cause so we don’t talk politics although I think he probably voted for Obama and against Trump.
Or maybe we’re just looking at a growing movement of people who consider their self interest in a broader sense. People who look at a crumbling infrastructure, low mobility, and an ecological threat to our existence as in their self interest. It seems to be something I recognize this more in people younger than myself, although this attitude knows no numerical age.
But it is generational in a political sense. Reagan and the GOP owned an entire political generation of framing. Remember that St Ronnie was also a celebrity who didn’t mind pandering to the darkest strains of nationalism and evangelical dominionism. I’ll address the Reagan/ Trump thing later. This idea interests me.
It is generational in the sense that the discussion is changing and it is moving left. We are facing an increasing realization that the GOP has failed this country in its lust for power and wealth. This is practically the Republican creed by which I mean it is the organizing lynchpin around which thay have built their power.
It is generational in the sense that fewer and fewer people remember the time that Reagan harkened back to, in true Trump style. The demographics don’t lie. Our body politic barely remembers the Berlin Wall falling and it is about to welcome a generation of voters born after 9/11.
So here’s the radical idea … Maybe, just maybe, the “drift towards Socialism” people are wringing their hands over isn’t a top down thing. Maybe we are seeing politicians who are reflecting the temperature of the body politic itself. The pendulum between left and right in this country has begun to swing left again.
For too long the frame has been “The era of big government is over”. And many of us believe that government is more than just necessary but that it can be a powerful tool for equality and justice. This political generation is looking to grab the levers of government to enhance fairness and equality for all of us. And it sees a government of, by, and for the people as the necessary bulwark against the excesses of Capitalism.
I’m not suggesting that Socialism is the answer, in this diary anyway, but I am saying that it is time to accept the radical idea that a move left in US politics is real and that it is coming from the people. Not being forced upon them.