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I have problems with people who abstained. The hard thing is, how do you change voter behavior?
this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2025
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The adage for as long as I can remember has been, Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line.
I desperately wish that liberals realize that reality is the arbiter, and no amount of wishing more folks would fall in line will work.
It's an ironic saying because the support for Trump is based entirely on emotion. The Democrats are the ones making the decision based on pragmatism.
So the correction would be that republicans fall in love and fall in line while democrats do neither?
That adage is pretty much the opposite of true. Republicans make demands of their politicians, and have no reservations about loudly denouncing them as "RINOs" if they don't follow through. The biggest third party candidate in history was Ross Perot in '96, because Republican Bob Dole was seen as too moderate and mainstream. Part of the reason that the party establishment didn't stop Trump from getting the nomination was because they knew there was a credible threat that he'd run third party, while the Democratic establishment resisted Sanders, because they knew he'd fall in line anyway.
The reason the adage exists is, ironically, because democrats are more prone to shaming voters who step out of line. From what I've seen, in right-wing circles, complaining about RINOs and shitting on the Republican establishment will get much less pushback compared to the opposite. Those who try to lecture and vote-shame are more likely to lose credibility themselves than the person they're criticizing.
Of course, because the party has received the message and fallen in line, there's less internal dissent, which is used to push the message that "Republican [voters] fall in line," used to pressure Democratic voters to fall in line.
As a lurker who ends up rubbing shoulders with right wing culture spaces, can confirm. The right has heresy tests for their politicians, the left tests for their voters. However the left expects competency in government (because they actually believe in it) and will sacrifice ideals or policies, while the right can afford the luxury of rejecting good governance because they’re expressly transactional when it comes to politics.
Rightwing voters are willing to cut off their nose in spite and become single issue voters - and it works for them. Pro-life or you’re dead to them. Pro-gun or you’re dead to them. Non-Christian? Dead. They get the political rhetoric and efforts they demand, which has left them severely ripe for opportunist political grifters who say whatever gets them access power. Like the MAGAs who build nothing, but hand out bones to voting blocs. Abortion overturned. No new gun laws. Ten Commandments in school and state houses. “Hurting the right people”. Migrants deported. Culture wars.
Or in the more extreme examples, they’ll just outright co-opt the structures of power and governance to fit the voters whims. It’s why we have the political maximalist lobbying NRA of today, instead of the humbler sportsman’s advocacy group of yesteryear. Or Trump.
Exactly. The reason that democrats think republicans "fall in line" is because they see all these shitty politicians on the right, but they don't realize that they're looking at completely different things from republicans. You can be a total fucking dirtbag, hypocrite, completely incompetent, but as long as you bend the knee to the causes they care about, they don't give a shit. Their standards are all about ideological purity, not character or competence. By contrast, democrats get outraged about any attempt at "purity testing," and would rather have someone "competent," which generally means, "willing to compromise to get things done." Meanwhile republican politicians are always worried that if they work with democrats at all, they'll be outflanked from the right. As a result, the country moves further and further to the right.
That's where crazy extremists like me think we should actually pay attention when the other side's tactics work and learn from them. But I probably shouldn't admit that or I'll be hit with "horseshoe theory" 🙄
You know I think maybe this resolves me that more people should just, run for political office, or maybe, resolves me that the dirtbag left is a concept which could probably be measured with some sort of success. You're probably right, the left needs to learn that people would probably vote for any stupid piece of shit with no sense of decorum, as long as that guy gave them healthcare. No sense of decorum actually might be an advantage, even, because then there's nothing left to rhetorically attack you with. That's sort of the whole, like, john fetterman-phenomena. Too bad he turned into an actual piece of shit instead of just being a guy that dresses in a hoodie.
People follow decorum because they don't want to be pieces of shit. So those that don't are likely to turn out to be pieces of shit. Not "alternative" good guys.