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this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2023
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Absolutely based post. I've recognized what they truly were 20 years ago. There is a slight distinction - the republican party always had 4 stools (people used to say three stools but I never agreed).
First stool is the wealthy just wanting to make more money (tax cuts, tax welfare, regulation capture, etc). This is the true stool in power pulling the strings of all the other stools. They know they can never win a popular vote (why would the workers vote to lower their own wages?). They ride the Santa sled with the big bag of money, the reigns are connected to the lesser stools, and they ride that sled into the bank
Second stool is the religious vote - really captured by Reagan I believe with the invention of the abortion issue, but they go as far back as Goldwater I believe, because he warned about them. These are the reindeer of the money sled
Third stool is the racists, the KKK types in the south. These are also the reindeer
Fourth stool is what I consider the conspiracy theory crowd - they sort of share the stool with the uneducated morons who can't seem to figure out what their best interests are ("get gobernment off my Medicare, vote republican"). This stool might fall under the "undecided" crowd by some metrics, but they fall victim to the usual right wing lies and propaganda all the fucking time, so I don't see why we can't just label them as they truly are, the useful idiot voters of the republican propaganda arm
As a whole, these groups are the same pieces of shit that love Trump because he's talks to them with a bullhorn, not through dog whistles like previous republicans, that's the difference some of you might not appreciate
Edit - one distinction I think is needed is the people who fell for the dog whistles were usually of the authoritarian/fascist type. For example, There were pretty decent religious people or business people who felt the wrong message was being presented by the republican party, but the authoritarians/fascists always fell in line behind the republicans/conservatives. Still the case today
Your fourth stool I think probably should be combined with gun owners & 2nd amendment folks as well. There’s been a persistent conspiracy theory that gets trotted out every year or so that Democrats are coming for their guns, though it’s not exactly a conspiracy, but the way it’s portrayed is as if it’s the first stage of Democratic Socialist Fascists kicking in your door and raping your grandma.
Yes, I think the 4th stool is shared by the single issue voter crowd - it's sort of an umbrella, but it still in major part are the people who fall for the propaganda; say 2nd amendment issue, or trans bathroom issue, or Critical Race Theory (although that might be more of a 3rd stool strategy), or whatever the next wedge issue the right wing media industrial complex thinks of - these people will fall for it EVERY SINGLE TIME. Just major inability to understand nuance and complete lack of critical thinking, whatever the case may be (I'm sure we can talk about this 4th stool a lot. I would love to find a way to cogently sum them up)