As Democrats, we often fall into the trap of finding comfort in polls which suggest that many Republicans “feel” or “believe” certain things that align with our values. Polls that suggest “two-thirds of Americans do not support overturning Roe v. Wade,” or 44% of Republicans now favor “stricter federal gun laws” in the wake of the Buffalo and Uvalde (and 30+ subsequent) mass shootings, or three-quarters of Republicans favor government action to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” Or 73% of Republicans favor paid maternity leave, or 91% of Republicans favor the right of Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
The list goes on, but I won’t bore you. Because the reality at this point in history (and likely for the foreseeable future) is that what Republican voters may believe or think is completely irrelevant to the political discussion from our standpoint. What matters is how they vote, and for the most part, they vote on one issue, and one issue only: their hatred of Democrats.
Republicans’ positions on certain issues may provide happy media fodder among those who might bemoan the lack of “unity” or “bipartisanship” in addressing the concerns that actual, real people may have about their lives. They may suggest that Democratic “messaging” is the problem, or (more often) that Democrats need to tailor their campaigns to better attract so-called “red America.” But by and large, “red America” isn’t listening. What they’re listening to is Fox News and their hyper-partisan social media. And that tells them that voting for Democrats is akin to voting for the Devil incarnate, no matter what the issue is.
Elie Mystal is on Daily Kos' The Brief podcast
Josh Marshall, writing for his Talking Points Memo (TPM), occasionally highlights some of the better comments from his readers. In the wake of the Uvalde shootings, he shared a comment from a reader identified as MH, who made some astute observations.
It’s not that half of Americans are pro-assault rifles or whatever. It’s that half the country—namely Republicans—is willing to turn a blind eye to the carnage. Similarly it’s not that half of Americans are anti-free and fair elections. It’s just that half the country—namely Republicans—is willing to turn a blind eye to the obvious lies of their leaders.
This is the result of polarization. When you find the other side politically unacceptable, you’ll go along with anything that your side is associated with. You can add abortion and Covid to guns and coups. There are yawning differences between what Republicans in the electorate say they believe on all these matters of grave import and what the Republicans who represent them do. Yet Republicans almost never punish their leaders for these difference of opinion.
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In short, political accountability is dead among those on the political right in America. It doesn’t matter if most disagree with the party on assault weapons and background checks. It doesn’t matter that 70% of Republicans supported mask mandates in 2020 while their leaders scoffed at them. It doesn’t matter that many Republicans have no interest in seeing Roe overturned. The power of polarization will have them out in force in the fall providing lockstep support to their congressional candidates.
That is why you have astounding numbers of Republicans voting not only to reelect Donald Trump, but Republican candidates in general, even in the wake of a wholly botched, objectively deadly pandemic response, not to mention a legacy of governmental mismanagement on a scale that puts the term “malpractice” to shame. Republican politicians flock to Fox News because their party’s mismanagement and inability to effectively govern is never made an issue, and they know that’s where their constituents get their information. As explained over a decade ago by Eric Alterman, the singular purpose of Fox News is to provide “ideological guidance to the Republican Party and millions of its supporters, attacking its opponents and keeping its supporters in line.” Or perhaps more aptly described by CNN’s Brian Stelter, it’s “where hosts and guests demonize Democrats from morning till night.”
Opposition to Democrats and any policy they espouse is now, as TPM’s Marshall describes, a “cultural signifier” for Republicans, a tribal rite of necessity. Far from merely voting against their interests, they will vote in lockstep to literally kill themselves, so long as it means not supporting any policy they consider “Democratic,” as has been thoroughly illustrated during the (unprecedented, in modern history) COVID-19 pandemic. The same is the case with guns, and abortion, as the TPM reader points out. There is no “talking” or “reasoning” with such people because reason is not part of this equation. The only hope of defeating them is to mobilize voters who recognize Republicans for what they are: completely committed, ideological nihilists.
New York Republican Rep. Chris Jacobs recently learned this the hard way: By suggesting, in the wake of the Uvalde massacre, that he would support a federal assault weapons ban, or even raising the age limit to 21 for the purchase of semi-automatic weapons, he was simply deluged by hatred from his Republican base. Within one week of his statements, he announced his retirement from Congress, in spite of the so-called Republican “support” for such measures.
I don’t intend to belabor this issue because I think most of us here have already internalized it. But in the future, when you see a poll saying what Republicans ”do” or “do not” support, take it with a grain of salt.
Because it doesn’t matter what they believe or think. They’ve gone well beyond that. They want Democrats defeated at all cost, even if it means destroying this country (and possibly themselves) in the process. And they will turn a blind eye toward just about anything their so-called “representatives” do or say, as long as they’re assured it’s necessary to defeat Democrats. To the extent our messaging makes a difference, it is just a small sliver of the electorate that can be convinced. A critical sliver, perhaps, but no one should be under the illusion that Republicans at large will be moved, no matter what the issue is.
Sun Tzu, from The Art of War:
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
The only watchword for these midterms? GOTV.