Today’s links Conservatives are fringe outliers – and leftists could learn from them: Unhinged QGOP freaks may be completely unhinged, but they know how to use power. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2008, 2013, 2018 Colophon: Recent publications, recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading Conservatives are fringe outliers – and leftists could learn from them (permalink) The Republican Party, a coalition between Big Business farmers and turkeys who’ll vote for Christmas (Red Scare obsessed cowards, apocalyptic white nationalists, religious fanatics, etc) has fallen to its bizarre, violent, noisy radical wing, who are obsessed with policies that are completely irrelevant to the majority of Americans. As Oliver Willis writes, the views of the radical right – which are also the policies of the GOP – are wildly out of step with the US political view: https://www.oliverexplains.com/p/conservatives-arent-like-normal-americans The press likes to frame American politics as “narrowly divided,” but the reality is that Republicans’ electoral victories are due to voter suppression and antimajoritarian institutions (the Senate and Electoral College, etc), not popularity. Democrats consistently outperform the GOP in national races. Dems won majorities in 1992/6, and beat the GOP in 2000, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020. The only presidential race the GOP won on popular votes since 1988 was 2004, when GW Bush eked out a plurality (not a majority). But, as Willis says, Dems “act like it is 1984 and that they are outliers in a nation of Reagan voters,” echoing a stilted media narrative….Pluralistic: Conservatives are fringe outliers – and leftists could learn from them (16 June 2023)