This post may be all over the place with 3 ideas that might be unconnected. You be the judge:
-
Odds are stacked against progressives in the US and in the rest of the developed world: We got the elites of the poor world migrating to the rich world, where they buy property, residency and voting rights, but they don't turn progressive. Why would they? They've always been conservative, it’s always worked for them. The poor ones are refused entry, die trying or become the new underclass in the rich world, working for their new owners who pat them and call them good workers, because they have no recourse and cannot change nothing because they have no voting rights.
-
Mail brides chosen by an American or Western bachelor, rejected by local women for being ignorant and uneducated, are chosen for being feminine, submissive and traditional, perpetuating conservatism. Suddenly our bachelor has a woman who will cook and do the laundry and won’t question him. Our character doesn’t have to try to mold his views anymore to meet a partner, he has imported a yes maid. He will raise their children accordingly. And for the mail bride, this is the normal state of affairs since she was small. Why would she even think about changing?
-
Add to that the working class conservatives, proud of not being like ‘those odd and strange looking progressives and feminists. Heck, I’m better than them because I’m not like them, don’t matter I work 50 hours a week and I’m not in an union. I'm not a lazy blob like them’ These working conservatives don’t care about public transport, a public healthcare option, unions, expanded medicaid, access to abortion and family planning or public sex education, things that would lower their premiums and avoid unwanted pregnancies. All that matters to them is being perceived as better than the groups I mentioned before. I don’t understand how this can be so powerful, but so many people believe it and vote accordingly. It’s not rational, it is identity, it is tribe.
Republicans are winning this game.
Happy for you to prove me wrong.
Who we are and how we see ourselves is extremely powerful. Take me for example: I cultivate a self-identity of an aspiring intellectual. I generally want to be seen as rational, with evidence-based beliefs, and having spent time thinking about my own thinking. I go to great lengths to shore up this identity for myself. This may not make me popular with the ladies, and I may not be able to easily converse with my friends on pop culture topics because I prefer analyzing arguments, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.
In contrast, some people want to be seen as loyal. This is irrational to me, but it's not like being an intellectual with properly weighted beliefs has ever been particularly useful for fitting in. Being loyal means adhering to the norms of the group because it's your group. Fundamentally, it's about identity for those that value loyalty and want to be seen as such. They'll side with their SO even if their SO is wrong to demonstrate that loyalty. They'll terrorize the out-group, believing themselves virtuous, because being loyal is virtue to them.
Republicans are winning this game. And we're becoming increasingly tribalistic in the U.S., where loyalty is more valued than a belief in democratic pluralism. What is public transport, public healthcare, unions, expanded medicaid, access to abortion, etc, in the face of belonging, being valued as a member of a greater community? The latter is existential; the former, just policy.