Welp, as you've told me countless times, there are a large number of simple-minded Repulicans just like there are a large number of simple-minded Democrats. Unfortunately, they outnumber the serious-minded people on both sides and vote according to what seems simple, whether it's for pouring money into clean energy that doesn't work efficiently and keeping the various government programs they "need" or abolishing all forms of government while praising Jesus, admonishing anchor babies, and firing their six-shooters into the air.
That you equate "clean energy investment" with the latter is quite frankly ridiculous. The money we "pour" into clean energy is minuscule. We "pour" way more money into national defense then we do into many "various government programs" (and some of those programs work just fine). Unless you are talking medicare/SS, and the alternative to that is old people eating cat food.
From the article: "The Democratic version tends to be both performative and substantive — they’ll rail against the top one percent, but also offer policy ideas like upper-income tax increases and minimum wage hikes that are intended to serve the interests of regular people. Democratic populism says that the problem is largely about power: who has it, who doesn’t, and on whose behalf it’s wielded."
These are serious not "simple" questions. That you think the left may "get it wrong" is different from whether it is "simple-minded" or not.
"Republican populism, on the other hand, is aimed against “elites” that are decidedly not economic. It’s the egghead professors, the Hollywood liberals, the government bureaucrats whom they tell their voters to resent and despise. And part of that argument is that despite what those know-it-all experts would have you believe, all our problems have simple and easy solutions. All you need is “common sense” to know how we should reform our health care system, fix the VA, or control undocumented immigration. Understanding how government works isn’t just unnecessary, it’s actually a hindrance to getting things done."
The alternative republican version should be at least what we got out of the 70s and 80s. I think those economic theories were ridiculously wrong, but they also weren't "simple-minded."
Reagan talked about government badly but in reality he used it quite often and at the end of the day clearly recognized the necessary government, as did Bush I.
Now, it's no longer Dem theory v Rep theory...it's Dem theories v. Rep "just get rid of government because it's all bad"
The anti-intellectual strain didn't use to be a part of conservatism...the Buckley's of the world, while hideous to someone like me, certainly tried to bring an intellectual bent to conservatism...now, it's all gut and common sense, as if macroeconomics is just really easy, and all those stupid liberal eggheads with their books and learnin are all screwing it up.
