Dem
51
GOP
49
Thomas Edsall has written an interesting column in which he suggests that with the selection of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his running mate, Donald Trump is trying to bring the left and right together. Well, in a way. Specifically, he is trying to merge cultural conservatives, who care greatly about abortion and traditional sexual attitudes, with left-wing economic populism on matters like trade, jobs and being anti-big-business. This isn't the first time anyone has tried that. The actual name of the Nazi Party was Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers' Party). Did you see the "socialist" and "workers" in there?
With the addition of Vance to the ticket, Trump is focusing on people who are both culturally conservative and also financially squeezed. These people despise all the social changes that have happened in America in the past 60 years. They see Black Americans getting uppity, LGBTQ Americans flaunting their lifestyle in public, women obtaining positions of real power, and more. Many are also economically hard-pressed, in part due to manufacturing jobs being exported as a result of free trade and globalization, as well as unions becoming much weaker.
Trump can now emphasize the cultural stuff while Vance can talk about the economic issues. This is very different from what traditional conservatives like Ronald Reagan wanted. For them, the less government the better. Vance's pitch is to use the power of government to actively help the working class. Of course, as a wealthy venture capitalist, whether he means a word of what he is saying is a matter of some debate. The Nazis certainly didn't. But Vance talks about protecting ordinary workers against the greedy elites and supports traditional industries like coal, oil, and gas against the elites who want to replace them (and their workers) with solar panels and windmills.
Edsall argues that, despite how the Trump-Vance pitch is framed, in reality, the battle today is between different blocs within the elites. One bloc consists of billionaires and the CEOs of giant multinational corporations. They care about cutting the top marginal tax rate and reducing or eliminating all manner of regulations on what companies can do. The other bloc is intellectuals—academics, journalists, pundits, activists, etc.—who care about the position of various oppressed groups in society. They want affirmative action, D.E.I., and other things that give these groups a leg up. Neither of these groups is especially popular with working-class people, especially in rural areas. Now Vance can attack the greedy CEOs while Trump can attack the D.E.I. crowd. In partnership, they enrage the target audience even more. The two fit together well and also fit well with traditional authoritarian governments. Of course, both Trump and Vance are wealthy elites themselves, and don't give a rat's a** about actual workers. But they believe that together they can hoodwink the target voters.
How big is the combined group? One study suggests that it is about a quarter of the population. In Trump's view, this would form the core of the new Republican Party. Now add in people who are traditionally religious (but not really economically pressed) and people who are in poor economic straits but not especially bigoted, and maybe you can get to 50% +1. (V)