It wasn’t just laziness. Corporations have become deviously adept at preventing unionization over the last thirty years. Couple that with some prolonged unemployment, and many were forced into compliance just to pay their bills.
Maybe calling it laziness alone was unfair, but the robber barrens of old were devious too and far more brutal. And a generation who voted in Reagan then turned around decades later to vote in Trump clearly is being lazy on their understanding of government. They sold out the middle class because they didn’t do the hard work of looking at policy and fighting these corporate stooges. They fell for the charismatic strong man because it was easier than paying attention to complex issues.
In between those two there were back-to-back Republicans with Reagan/Bush, then another two terms of W after Clinton that all fought against the interests of workers rights. There were massive campaigns disengaging Gen X from politics, not unlike the “genocide Joe” and “BoTh SiDeS” arguments of today.
Since Reagan, every Republican win coincides with low Democratic voter turnout. They don’t need to convince you to vote Republican, just that your candidate isn’t worth showing up for.
It wasn’t just laziness. Corporations have become deviously adept at preventing unionization over the last thirty years. Couple that with some prolonged unemployment, and many were forced into compliance just to pay their bills.
Maybe calling it laziness alone was unfair, but the robber barrens of old were devious too and far more brutal. And a generation who voted in Reagan then turned around decades later to vote in Trump clearly is being lazy on their understanding of government. They sold out the middle class because they didn’t do the hard work of looking at policy and fighting these corporate stooges. They fell for the charismatic strong man because it was easier than paying attention to complex issues.
In between those two there were back-to-back Republicans with Reagan/Bush, then another two terms of W after Clinton that all fought against the interests of workers rights. There were massive campaigns disengaging Gen X from politics, not unlike the “genocide Joe” and “BoTh SiDeS” arguments of today.
Since Reagan, every Republican win coincides with low Democratic voter turnout. They don’t need to convince you to vote Republican, just that your candidate isn’t worth showing up for.