loosely regulated or highly 'financialized' capitalism, foreign policy, maybe policing, probably a few others, were pretty much off the table in that they were agreed upon by most on both sides of the aisle, and that left the door open. Sanders was actually right of Bush and Rs on immigration not too long ago for economic reasons, but lower immigration started to = racist. Gay marriage was kind of the last social conservative frontier, it was always gonna happen and did. When the consensus became calcified like that, and so much people care about was out of bounds, it enabled more a more noxious type of reactionary politics to creep in. Basically, I think society advanced left socially and right economically in addition to technology change, and people left behind there were were eager for any alternative on offer, I certainly didn't see it coming beforehand. Totally agree "strong middle class" is the lynchpin, and I actually do think the vast majority of this country is on board with what you say about social issues they just have different takes on how to achieve it and manage to coexist. A lot of that takes place outside the realm of politics at this point, the legal battles have mostly been won, but they still play out in politics with the messaging and in the world at large.


[Post edited by hoodeyo at 07/15/2020 7:28PM]