Summary
Pennsylvania Democrats are protesting Sen. John Fetterman’s growing alignment with Trump, citing his visit to Mar-a-Lago and votes for Trump nominees.
Critics, including Rep. Summer Lee and local leaders, accuse him of abandoning progressive values and failing to oppose Trump’s policies.
Some see his shift as a strategic move in a GOP-leaning state, but others compare him to former Arizona Senator Krysten Sinema’s alienation from her base.
Discontent among Democratic activists raises questions about a potential 2028 primary challenge.
I’d say the distinction is justified by the very quantifiable and objective data to support it from many countries and elections. It’s also by design, as rural people’s emotions will be much better controlled by xenophobia in its most literal sense. Also rural people have much smaller networks and thus much more controllable information consumption. This is what right wing conservatives have been banking on.
I entirely agree with this, but it’s also hindsight is 20/20. I don’t think it was an insane idea to run on the idea of cooperation and consistency vs. the chaos of trumpism to convince the “normal conservatives”. Harris’ campaign was highly risk-averse, but again the theme was consistent, vote for us and we won’t fuck shit up like trump would. What the past two general elections showed is that anger appears to be the primary winning force. GOP strategy pounding on grocery pricing was the perfect method, people pay for groceries multiple times a week, so you can remind them how angry they are every time even when Americans’ primary issue (relative to other western nations) are housing and healthcare and the lack of social safety net, whereas Americans have bad diets but don’t starve.
That said if we keep anger to be the driver of elections, it’s only a matter of time to end up with a civil war.
I guess the question is whether the Democrats want 5% of the rural vote or 0% of it. Having lived in Trump country there are a lot more lefties than people think, and they’re even more annoyed at their redneck neighbors than city folk. So if a campaign is saying they’ll reach across the aisle it will turn them off.
I also don’t think it’s hindsight. Lots of people online thought it was a bad idea. Republicans have been vilifying anyone not them for 30+ years.
And at this point I think a civil war is the only way to resolve things. Nation states will not survive the invention of the internet.
Many people said many many things, so by the rule of large numbers, someone’s prediction will pan out but it doesn’t necessarily mean they have a superior grasp of the underlying causes or that their next predictions will be correct again.
I suspect you are correct about the eventuality of a civil war, but I do hope the revolution can be pulled off without bloodshed. Like through migration to decentralized networks.
Yeah, the best outcome would be society rebuilding around the nation-states, causing it to wither away from lack of attention and real power. Kinda like how lots of countries still have hereditary monarchies that are purely ceremonial.