Who Else Thinks We Need an Aggressive Economic Populism Party in the United States That Is Also Hands Off on Social Issues?

Question

The Democrats are the pro elite party who want to bend over for corporate America

The Republicans are the white trash religious nutty party who just whine on stupid ass cultural wars that fix nothing

So we need an aggressive economic populism libertarian on social issues party to save this shithole country. We need the best education, Healthcare, benefits, infrastructure, etc in the damn whole world!!

nightdrot · Accepted Answer

Voted "No." In part because the question misstates the nature of American political parties and therefore a third party would not necessarily, at the end of the day, be much different from the existing parties. The other point being that the question misunderstands the nature of populism and the relationship of culture to politics.

To start, American parties are not ideological parties as you tend to see in Europe. Rather they are lose knit coalitions of regional, religious, ethnic, racial, income and other groups that have come together in part by common interests and in part by historical accident.

In the case of the GOP, it is a coalition made up of classical liberals - which Americans call conservatives, libertarians, small and medium sized business, religious and social traditionalists, lower middle and upper middle income earners, farmers, rural and exurban populations, older voters, the South, the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountain West and the state of Alaska, to name the most prominent groups.

On the Democratic side you get, ethnic and religious minorities, middle and high income wage earners, big business and entertainment industries, urban and inner suburban votes, radical liberals - which Americans call liberals. (Note, the term "radical" here does not mean as Americans use it, i. e. "extremist," but rather as the ancient Greeks used the term, meaning "to the root of.") The northeast, the mid-Atlantic, the Pacific coast and the state of Hawaii.

This is how you get a Republican Party that runs from Ted Cruz at one end to Susan Collins at the other. This is how you get a Democratic Party that runs from Joe Manchin at one end to Elizabeth Warren at the other. Quite simply, party identification is not about ideological identity.

Thus, look closely enough and there is apt to be elements in both parties that already hew to the viewpoint expressed in the question. The point being that such a viewpoint has gotten as much traction as it can in the context of American political culture.

This conducing to the next point, populism is NOT a consistent political philosophy. It is, rather, an expression of envy and resentment to groups assumed to be dominant in the country and the culture. Thus Donald Trump is NOT a conservative. He is a populist. Bernie Sanders is NOT a socialist. He is rather a populist.

The appeal of both being to feelings of, as noted, envy and resentment in the culture than then gain expression in the politics, and thus the government policies, of the nation. This then why the neat divide the question postulates cannot happen.

Indeed, the social conservatism the question deplores is, in part, an outgrowth of populism. It is the result of certain groups - particularly lower and middle class blue collar workers - that believe that the culture is being dominated by distant and powerful elites that look down upon them and want to indoctrinate their children.

CONT.

USLegionary · Accepted Answer

We have the best the best education, Healthcare, benefits, infrastructure.
Education: we have all those Ivy League colleges and other great colleges that students from all around the world come to study in.

We have the best healthcare in the world. It'd just that many can't afford it. To be honest a lot of the high prices related to healthcare is due to the obese driving it up. Should non-obese have to pay for the health problems of 40% of the country?

Benefits? You mean welfare? We need more people to get jobs rather than being a burden on soceity.

Infrastructure. Most of our infrastructure is tied up in the military

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Republicans are the kind of people who water their lawns during a drought.

duttyjamagyal · Answer

No social issues r too important

Who Else Thinks We Need an Aggressive Economic Populism Party in the United States That Is Also Hands Off on Social Issues?

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Who Else Thinks We Need an Aggressive Economic Populism Party in the United States That Is Also Hands Off on Social Issues?

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