You seem to have our political system all figured out.
I do see a several flaws which after a more thorough investigation on your part might lead to a better understanding of what has always driven the success of our great nation.
Free Enterprise & Limited Government are two for starters.
Individual dignity, self respect & ambition is lost under the guise of equity.
I invite you to study CA and determine if handouts; free drugs; homes at corporate expense and no jail time for robbing & smashing businesses (which puts good people who provide jobs or services and who contribute to society out of business) would be welcome in a community near you?
Socialism (equity) has never succeeded at solving societies problems, at least in my limited study of history.
The author of the above noted fulmination is a woman whom I met in November, 2022 by the swimming pool in a gated community on Longboat Key where we were staying for the winter. For weeks she and I were the only people who regularly appeared by the pool (it was early in the “season”) and as a result we became familiar. I discerned from the outset that she was not a shy woman; though after succumbing to her allure, I found her to be far more tender than she first appeared to be based upon her initial more forceful and outspoken personality.
What has derived from this prolonged acquaintance – apart from having subsequently met her courteous husband and his charming son – is the clarification of what for me are the first indications I have hitherto been unable to unravel of the political attraction of Donald J. Trump to the American electorate, a progress frankly complicated by Trump’s unenviable social, commercial and legal records. Foremost the magnetism is clearly not Trump or his oft-cited “base” (which has similarly been unfavourably distinguished as tattooed men and women wearing preposterous hats and costumes, people also whose education is highly questionable and who have confessed to the draw of Trump as nothing more shrewd than entertainment). I think you’ll agree that that description paints a limited and distasteful view of an acceptable national political platform.
By contrast the woman by the pool has intelligently uplifted and deciphered the elucidation of what I believe to be the formerly elusive Republican appeal to a level which incorporates succinct (and admittedly persuasive) historic themes of resourcefulness and charity. Connecting the two is the sobering feature of freedom from interference. In short, “Leave me alone to do what I want; and you had better look after yourself or keep out of my way!” No doubt there are numerous alternative ways in which to translate the case, but essentially it captures the liberty to act and the fear of intrusion by others (government or societal cretins).
This orthodox theory, while appropriate for a limited world of experience (basically, those who are fortunate) is not however one which successfully or entirely eclipses private (free) endeavours (enterprise) and finite (limited) regime (government), not unlike the qualified metaphor of a gated community which is at best a tenuous social fiction. The evaporation goes on to cloak itself in the seeming advantage of “self-respect” which in the context of “ambition” is perceived as muted by “equity”. The author then elaborates the meaning of equity to be a permissive indulgence called “socialism” which of course is in this vernacular a transitional social state between the overthrow of capitalism and the realization of communism. In all the boundaries between oneself and the masses are corrupt and ultimately catastrophic!
Obviously there is ample room within the discussion for debate. My achievement however is the narrow description of what it is that stimulates so many Americans to adopt the Republican message. Trump is not part of that stimulation except for a clueless base which has trouble reciting the national anthem. The base is nonetheless critical to voting advantage in the polls. Otherwise Republicanism is for purist and doctrinaire Americans.
Meanwhile well-intentioned Americans on both sides allow themselves contemporaneously to be confounded, squared and abused by MAGA crowds or perverse politicians on both sides, separating themselves from addressing the larger questions of social evolution and universal commonality. Gas chambers are not the answer! Americans have yet to confess the historic and current reliance upon the disadvantaged classes (without whom their profits are unattainable); the notable and inexcusable statistic of national gun violence and incarceration (ironically a costly outcome on all sides far exceeding the philosophic impurity of socialism); the inevitable demographic change from whites to colours, a pattern affecting Europe especially as China imperceptibly overtakes Africa as it has already done in the Caribbean; plus the diminished health of global climate and growing pollution of oceans. Dialogue and understanding are imperative and inescapable. War or riot is not the answer, with Conservatives on one side yelling, “To Hell with the bastards, let them eat cake!” and Liberals on the other chanting, “Freedom from sex, religion, appearance and decency!”
What is under threat is hard-headedness not possibilities. There are ways to make it work without sanctioning long-held beliefs. Neither is the heartfelt arrogance of the parties nor their reputed dissenters an answer or solution. It constitutes blindness to fail to address the stream of violence, riot and subterfuge within some political ranks. And while no one should tell another what to read or write or whom to love or how or where to go to the bathroom, some measure of compromise is better than insoluble violence.
It says we not only have the right, but we also have the duty to alter or abolish any government that does not secure our unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Americans have many rights and we are watching the government take everything away from us. We deserve life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. We are Americans. We will not be controlled. We will not stand down.