I have been thinking a lot about why Republicans are so enraged at us, so enraged that they would inflict Donald Trump on us twice. I mean, I clearly got in 2016 that Trump was the FU candidate and that this was an FU election. But I thought they would have gotten it out of their system in 2016. Not so, of course.
So I asked ChatGPT to summarize what Republicans are so angry at us for. (ChatGPT, btw, is quite good at this kind of inquiry.) The list that ChatGPT came up with is set forth below. But before we even get to that, I have to acknowledge a few general grievances that I’m sure Republicans have.
First of all, on the left we have, over the years, been a little bit too smug. You can see this in particular during award shows or through the late night comedians. If you watch those shows you would think that everyone is with us, when clearly they are not. This is why Republicans hate “Hollywood” so much. We’ve got to watch our attitude.
Second, we have gone a little bit overboard with political correctness and the vocabulary one can and cannot use. For example, insisting that we all declare the gender pronouns we want to be known by. I’m all for people who are sincerely gender-fluid or transitioning getting to choose their pronouns — although the available options are often awkward, as pronouns like “they” and “them” really denote plurality — but asking some farmer in Kansas to declare what pronoun he wants be known through is a little bit silly.
So what are the issues that Republicans are so mad at us over. Let’s take a look.
Immigration Policy
Many Republicans seem to think that Democrats are promoting open borders and that immigrants are taking their jobs. Of course, immigrants can’t simultaneously be blamed for jobs being shipped to China and taking jobs that most regular Americans don’t want to do. Most people with their eyes open know that farm work is dominated by Mexicans and elder care is dominated by Africans and almost all the available house cleaners are Brazilian, and these are all jobs that “domestic” American generally do not want to do. Otherwise, these would be Schrödinger’s immigrants. But no immigrant here has caused jobs to be shipped to China. That would be CEOs who need to take the blame for that.
The Size of Government
Ever since Ronald Reagan Republicans have basically seen the government as the enemy of the people and that it should be smaller and more “efficient.” Well, like any very large employer, the government is not always efficient. Not every program brings good results, and in fact, I’m actually on board with one conservative idea, and that is that most programs should have a seven year sunset, and unless its supporters can demonstrate at the end of seven years that the program is effective and should be renewed, then it should expire at that time.
But other large organizations are also not super efficient. For example, Walmart, Amazon, Kroger, United Parcel Service and Home Depot — the largest employers in the United States — do some things well and some things not so well. And by definition, not everyone can be above average. Some people are better off in jobs that don’t require too much initiative.
Finally, the federal government contributes some amazing things, especially in areas like scientific research, without which many of the advances we’ve had in science would not have happened. Most of that stuff flies under the radar. Most of those things are done in partnership with other actors, like research hospitals, but these are very important things.
Just about every President who has ever been elected wants to make government more efficient, but that, it turns out, is a sisyphean task.
Social & Cultural Issues
Republicans are very worked up about “hot button” social issues like gay rights and abortion, and this has been true for a long time. With the Dobbs decision, they bought themselves a great victory. Ironically, it turns out that even in conservative states, when the question of abortion rights is put directly to the voters, the voters approve of abortion rights.
Go figure.
Gay rights, on the other hand, is an issue that has changed with the generations. Most of the older generation is uncomfortable with gay rights, whereas much of the younger generation could care less. Remember that Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, which legalized gay marriage, was only decided in 2003. It arguably tanked the presidential aspirations of John Kerry in 2004, even though he had nothing to do with it. Twelve years later we had Obergefell v. Hodges at the Supreme Court, and not even Donald Trump is currently advocating to reverse that decision.
But when it comes to the transgendered, we’re not there yet. We’ll most likely be there in another generation, but we’re not there yet today. We probably need to let that issue “marinate” until some of the controversy is bled out of it. In any case, it clearly has a lot of conservatives fired up.
Gun Rights
I’m not really sure why conservatives are still fired up about this, since you cannot even get any more pro-gun than the United States currently is. There are virtually no restrictions on gun purchases at the current time, and many conservatives are more concerned about the 2nd Amendment than they are about voting rights. Remember the Jade Helm 15 conspiracy theories? Those worked out exactly like all the times that someone claimed that Second Coming was happening on a specific day. In any case, no one is “coming to take their guns.” That is now a settled issue.
Climate Policy & Energy
Conservatives tend to be critical of climate and energy policies that promote sustainable energy and limit global warming, because they think there is a simple trade-off between progressive policies and harm to the economy. And to be fair, trade-offs can exist. But in the long run, sustainable energy is much better for the economy and creates many new local jobs here in America — something that the Trump administration is allegedly wanting to have happen — than committing to outdated industries. That’s not how capitalism works.
Back in the day, we switched from steam locomotives to diesel because they were a much better technology; we switched from whale oil to shale oil because these were a much better technology (and whales were being hunted to extinction). We had to make the leap from horse and buggies to cars.
Is there pain involved in these kinds of transitions? Sure.
Does the pain often hit the working class disproportionately? Yes.
But that doesn’t mean that we can stay committed to antiquated technologies forever.
The destruction that would come with continued global warming would be a disaster not only for the United States but the entire planet. It’s time for us to “take our heads out of the sand.”
Crime and Policing
Republicans often claim that Democrats are “too soft” on crime and that our cities are overrun with criminals. Well, we’re not “soft” on crime, but more to the point, being too “hard” on crime is completely counterproductive.
Years and years of experience with criminal justice has proven that rehabilitation and reintegration are the two things that statistically are most likely to keep people from reoffending. Policies like bail reform also lead to less recidivism. You can look it up.
Now, back during the George Floyd protests, the chants to “defund the police” were a huge mistake. I (and many others like me) knew that from day one. That was a rhetorical disaster. But often, it’s Democrats who are much more supportive of the police in actual practice, such as when Jon Stewart had to go to the wall to ensure the enactment of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act over the objection of Republicans. Support for the police by Republicans is often merely performative, as it was on January 6th in the Capitol.
Election Integrity
This one is based on pure fantasy, and comes primarily from one man’s inability to accept defeat under any circumstances. The 2020 election was examined from every angle, and there was never any persuasive evidence that the election was rigged against Donald Trump. No, Trump lost in court 63 times, with just one small procedural victory which everyone conceded could not have affected the outcome. Still, there are Republicans to this day, who cannot accept the obvious.
A much more serious concern is that of voter suppression, which arguably made the difference in the outcome of the 2024 election, especially in the “swing” states. It is a false equivalence between “election integrity” and “voter suppression.” Almost all the evidence suggests that voter suppression is a much more serious concern than election integrity.
Detachment from Reality
By now there is plenty of evidence that Republicans have essentially become detached from reality. Consider, for example, Attorney General Pam Bondi’s recent assertion that the DEA under Trump intercepted 71 million Fentanyl pills, and in the process saved “258 million” lives. Consider the absurdity of this post. First of all, how does 72 million pills translate to 258 million lives? That would mean that each pill intercepted — and who knows how many there actually were — would have saved 3.5 American lives. Now consider that 258 million lives is approximately 74.29% of the American population, babies, children and the elderly included. That would mean that you, and me, and my brother, and my sister, and my mother — well, maybe not my mother, maybe she is part of the quarter of the population that was not saved by Donald Trump — but that all of the rest of us were dying (pun intended) to get our hands on Fentanyl. Trump has repeatedly made assertions virtually every day that have no basis in fact whatsoever. I guess it’s not surprising that conservatives are so angry at us when they literally live in a fact free zone.
Former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said that “you’re entitled to your own opinion but not to your own set of facts.” Continuing to live in a fact free zone would eventually lead to the implosion of the Republican party. You can only live in a fantasy world for so long. Unless we can get to the point where we can at least agree on what the facts are, never mind what they imply, we are going to be a very sorry country indeed.