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nerdsingerbeej · 3 years ago

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A copy/paste of my twitter account's pinned tweet thread, Originally posted 25 April 2022:

Why "We can still be friends even if we vote for different party's candidates" is a facile, childish fantasy (& really, low-key it has been at least since The Southern Strategy)

Before I was born & for the 1st 1/2+ of my life (80s kid), GOP politicians got votes by saying basically "We think taxes should be lower, the Govt should spend less & regulate business less. Less govt means more $ in your pocket, voters" This was nominally true, but

Despite saying those things, the only people who saw taxes go down were the wealthy, not the working class. The only regulations that they fought were ones big Corps wanted out of the way, & they consistently built up huge budget deficits by spending huge $ on the Military

They kept saying "small govt" even as Bush II oversaw the largest expansion of the federal Govt and various fed regulations in history after 9/11, but have since stopped even pretending they like small Govt.

They still say they don't want regulations, except when they want to regulate women's reproductive organs, what books are allowed in schools & libraries, who is allowed to vote, how people can vote, who is allowed to worship freely, whether or not LGBTQ+ are, in fact, people

Conservative pols were always doing those things btw, they just hid it beneath a veneer of "lower taxes, less govt" & working class white people didn't give a shit about the other stuff, & didn't seem to notice that the tax breaks never trickled down like Reagan promised

Dem/liberal messaging has been fairly consistent. Dem/Lib pols have been saying "Govt should be making ppl's lives better especially the poor & the minorities" & occasionally, they'd do something about that (FDR & Johnson did most, otherwise there's been slow, small progress)

The ACA was the only major piece of even slightly progressive policy enacted by a Dem govt since the Civil Rights Act, & that is a nearly 50yr gap. Dem govts have been mostly gutless (exec & Leg branches) during my lifetime, taking almost no risks to enact their stated goals

& watching the GOP swing further & fürher towards blatant authoritarian demagoguery esp the last 20 yrs while the Dems remain mostly gutless is disheartening. Dem pols-its time to swing for the fences. You tell us "vote" & then you're too chickenshit to do anything substantive.

Dems won't keep the fascist GOP out of power by being "civil" or "cooperative" with their "colleagues". This GOP would love to Stalin you all into a gulag. From Gingrich to McConnell, they've said outright they will *not* work WITH you. Only against.

This kid gloves, old fashioned Mr Smith compromise shit is a fairy tale today. Let it go. And DO SOMETHING. Something big that helps people. Show us by actions, not just words. Otherwise we give the country over to the likes of Desantis, Boebert, Gaetz etc & won't get it back

Back to the main thesis here: GOP voters used to disagree w/Dem voters about how & how much govt should spend & do. You can still be friends while disagreeing with that BUT- It is no longer about that.

Decades of right wing media I.E. Fox "News", Rush, etc have been telling older white Americans that "Brown/Black/Gay/other minority group are the reason your pensions are gone & replaced w/401ks, & your wages haven't matched inflation & all other bad things in your life"

They pick one or more of these groups to demonize, which makes the voters scream at the Pols about it, which has given the pols (esp since 2008) an excuse to get more & more openly bigoted. It's Trans ppl today. A few years ago, it was (brown) migrants.

In the 90s, it was Black Gangbangers (so much so that even Dem prez Clinton signed a racist AF bipartisan crime bill into law) & the list goes on & on. To the point that Rs no longer are running on any policies other than "Fuck those (minority of the week) let's git them"

And really that was what their *actions* have always said, even decades before I was born. Their voters weren't the ones being affected & so could afford not to notice when others were hurt. They could say "I just like small govt"

But now, they're voting for Pols who loudly, explicitly say that ppl who aren't White/Straight/(& also, Male) are not equal. Not worthy of the rights they enjoy as citizens. Not worthy of concern or care. At best, ignored. At worst (& most often) punished for their difference

And if you can be friends w/someone who thinks that ppl who aren't White/Straight/Cis Male aren't actually people, that means you accept their point of view as valid. I can't be friends with someone who thinks minority ppl are less.

This is not a disagreement about whether the govt should spend our tax $ on helping the poor or buying Jets & Warships in case the USSR (which hasn't existed for 30yrs btw who are we trying to impress w/those F35s) does something.

It never really was, but voters could pretend it was. Now it is blatantly "are non-white/straight/cismale folks actually people or not" and if you think it isn't, you are being willfully ignorant. Look around:

FL just de facto disenfranchised tons of Black voters & are trying to distract from that fact by fighting w/Disney over their (also Horrible) Don't Say Gay law. TX basically banned abortion & trans kids, with creepy Big Brother Snitching mechanisms attached. This IS the GOP.

Other R states are doing their best to do their worst to all sorts of minorities. This isn't a fiscal argument anymore. It isn't feasible to be friendly w/those who think their neighbors aren't people. If you ever wondered how the Nazis rose to power, *that* is how.

Stop being "civil" with those who'd just as soon bring back Jim Crow, who'd legalize jailing & torturing LGBTQ+, who want their un-Christ-like brand of "Christianity" to inform policy decisions, who denigrate "The Other."

Civility will not stop hate.

Never Again is Now.

#small rant #leftist #pinned tweet #rip twitter

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