From Deborah Long at The Moderate Voice:
It is troubling to think that one half of the American electorate might be playing by a different set of rules than the other half. We all have the same needs: we all need better paying jobs as Kamala Harris says; we all need better and more affordable healthcare as Bernie Sanders says; and we all need more income equality as Elizabeth Warren says. Then why aren’t these policy proposals resonating with the vast majority of Republicans? Democrats are fighting for their lives, while the Republicans are merely fighting for their next win. What explains the idea that Republicans engage in climate denial while rising seas lap at their doors and 1,000-year storms flatten their neighborhoods? What explains their support for the right of anyone to own an assault rifle, even as gun violence continues to result in the massacre of grade-schoolers, maybe even their own children? And what could possibly explain their support of tax legislation that robs them of prosperity so that the wealthy are given the fruits of everyone else’s labor?
American politics have always been an exercise in strategic decision-making, but it has largely been played by the same set of rules. But what happens when one party starts to play by different rules?