"Strategic Extremism": How Republicans and Establishment Democrats Use Identity Politics to Divide and Rule

http://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/12/strategic-extremism-how-republicans-and-establishment-democrats-use-identity-politics-to-divide-and-rule/
Date Written:  2019-07-12
Publisher:  CounterPunch
Year Published:  2019
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX23752

Since morality is easy to use as a tool to manipulate voters, Republican's wooing of the alt-right is an effective strategy in a close election. To counter this the left must focus on real issues that challenge corporate power.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

Glaeser et al. explain: "a politician deviating from the median will gain more from energizing his own supporters than he loses by further alienating his opponent’s supporters [sic]." On the abortion issue, the Democrats have moved further left since the 1970s (meaning that their position has been to side with the mother) and the Republicans moved further right (meaning that their position has been to preserve the embryo/foetus/baby no matter what). Team Trump didn't explicitly try to mobilize the Christian right, though they did implicitly by standing on an anti-Islamic platform. Instead, they mobilized the amorphous alt-right: disenfranchised, usually-wealthy but not super-wealthy voters who considered the Republicans too left-wing. Reaching for the far-right in a country of moderates may seem counterintuitive, until we understand how small statistical shifts can result in significant, aggregate changes....

Bannon's alt-right followers only become significant demographically in the context elections because of small statistical changes in macro-systems, especially ones aided by an electoral college system. In an election such John McCain vs. Barack Obama, the alt-right wouldn’t have mattered: Obama had a higher approval rating (52%) than McCain (46%), and after eight years of a disastrous Bush presidency, Americans were hoping for change (Hope and Change). However, by 2016, Hillary Clinton represented more of the same.