With US beef prices soaring to record highs, you might think that South Dakota cattle rancher Eric Gropper would be celebrating.
Yet while the cost of the meat in US supermarkets is now 12% higher than it was a year ago, a rise more than three times the rate of general inflation, Gropper says that he and all the other beef farmers aren’t making any more profit than usual.
The Democratic party is too big of a tent, trying to merge blue collar workers, academic hippies, and champagne liberals. It doesn’t work, it is failing as a party.
Well we do have to find a way to work together. The Democrats vs Republicans conflict is an example of specialization vs generalization strategies.
Back in the mid 20th century and earlier, both parties catered to white straight married Christians. That group represented maybe 80% of the electorate, so both parties took the needs and desires of that demographic as a given. Before the Civil Rights era, most black people didn’t have the vote, and straight white married Christian was the standard cultural model. If you weren’t married, you probably aspired to be so. If you weren’t straight, you were a social pariah at best and a felonious sex offender at worst. Being gay was literally a mental illness. Racial groups beyond black and white were similarly marginalized, as were faiths other than Christianity. This demographic was numerous enough and powerful enough that no politician could win office while offending their sensibilities.
Then society slowly changed, diversified, and opened up. More universal suffrage was achieved; more people started living alone. More people left Christianity, the LGBT rights movement happened, and racial and religious minorities proliferated through cultural shifts and immigration.
The parties responded to this with competing strategies. Republicans just kept doubling down on straight white married Christians. Anyone who either isn’t all of these, or at least aspires to be these, fundamentally isn’t welcome in the Republican party. This means everyone else has to become Democrat by default if they want any hope of having their voices heard by those in power.
It’s not an ideal solution, but it’s what we got. The country is much more diverse than in the past, but not so diverse that hyper specializing in the single largest unified demographic group is an nonviable strategy. It’s even more so when Republicans are willing to stretch the definition of “white” to include some Hispanic and Asian people.
Until this is no longer a viable strategy, Democrats are just going to have to remain a big tent coalition party. And this makes for some awkward allies. Conservative black Christians have to find a way to work with radical queer anarchists. And vice versa. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s what our first-past-the-post electoral system and national demographics require. Sometimes you just have to play the hand you’re dealt.