Thread by @wrong_speak

There has been a shift in American politics and this is my attempt to breakdown how it shifted & why it happened.

*Thread*

Obviously, this is my opinion and some details could be slightly off but the point still remains that American politics has shifted throughout the past decade but considerably in the past 4-6 years for multiple reasons.

I'm going to be focusing on 4 main political groups: liberals, progressives, conservatives & the religious right/evangelicals. I could go into more detail but I don't want to bog you down with too many details (especially on Twitter).

We'll start with liberals since this is where the largest fracture has occurred. I would say the fracture started around the Ocuppy Wall Street movement. There was a growing resentment happening by moderate liberal types who saw Obama use tax dollars to bailout wall-street...

and continue the "stupid wars" that he stated he wanted to end. The hope & change candidate provided the status quo for major issues & for many they felt he underdelivered & played typical politics. This lead for Donald Trump to gain some validity in his criticisms.

Of course, Trump can be hyperbolic but to people who were sick & tired of undelivered promises, it was more of a disgust with the political system, not just Obama. Hence, why people were willing to go outside the norm & try out Trump to "change the system".

The fracture continued when Bernie Sanders ran for the Presidency the 1st time and people were attracted to him for similar reasons as Trump. Although their policy positions were different, many did not want another Clinton in power. They simply wanted someone different.

We often overlook how many people who supported Bernie initially but when they saw how the DNC screwed over Bernie, they went straight to Trump as an alternative. This is because these liberals are very moderate in their positions & were open to going in either direction.

Keep in mind, Barack Obama had won the popular vote twice & there were many who voted for Obama & Trump. The #WalkAway movement are filled with them. This tells me that Trump was not seen as a right-wing only candidate but a populist candidate who spoke to many people.

With the growing progressive social movements (ie BLM) & the full embrace of identity politics by Democrat leaders, some liberals moved farther to the left becoming progressives (some for party loyalty) and those who disagreed moved further to the right.

Interestingly enough, while some liberals thought the Democrats were too progressive, progressives believe Democrats aren't progressive enough. Much of them see Democrat leaders as being one degree better than Republicans. There is still anger there about how Bernie was treated.

There are obviously different factions of progressives but many of them are new progressives created by the failures of Democrat leadership, unkept promises while enticed by simplicistic solutions. For a period of time, I was this person who was interested in their solutions.

On the right, with Trump essentially infultrating the Republican party and reframing what it means to be on the right, it was no longer purely about low taxes, family values & christianity. While those aspects still remain, it became much more of a liberal adaptation.

Free Speech for example was a proud liberal principle (one I strongly believe in) yet now, because of the shift in politics, conservatives, many of them former liberals, have fully embraced this liberal principle to the point of being their brand.

Many of the people you are labling of conservatives are part of the 'new right' and have either embraced certain conservative principles and/or brought into the conservative movement some liberal ideals. This is why they appear to be more open-minded today than in years past.

The Republican party is very much so the party of Trump or the remnance of Trump, although this is changing slightly. Some do see him as a one time necessity & would rather a more traditional type of politician who will deliver better messaging than Trump.

This leaves us the religious right or evangelical right. They are still involved in the party but their influence has been deminished by the existence of a populist President. Once they were the party's base, now they are on the sidelines waiting for their turn.

What I think many of them fail to understand is that even the new conservatives are religious as well. They support the same social policy positions (ie pro-life) but the 'new right' are open to commonsense adaptations instead of stagnation.

There are obviously liberals who stand firm in their positioning as being liberals but even they see the fractioning occurring. They would rather stay as Democrats & fight to bring back the party they used to know, which I understand. However, many have bailed, including me.

Those same liberals who want to stand firm are now viewed as being "right wing" even though they support the same positions they always have. This is because the political spectrum has shifted left & the usage of identity politics has been prolific in forcing sides.

The changes in media, COVID response & a general ignoring of common people's issues has also made apolitical people become more politically active and anti-Democrat (which is different than pro-Republican).

The same type of anger against elitists in media & government pre-Trump is returning as there is a new animosity for the political structure to the point of having an anti-establishment movement regardless of party. They are chosing political independence & values over party.

There are constant changes happening within the world of politics but to ignore these changes will only leave you behind the curve as to what is going on within our country.

If you would like this in article format, you can read it on @wrongspeakpub

wrongspeak.net/how-why-the-po…