re: #25 Dr Lizardo

I would think the GOP would’ve had that demographic sewn up long ago.

If I actually think about it deeply, there are actually two bases that the GOP are trying to address right now.

One is people who are frightened and desperate but scared of change: they’re basically talking to those people like they’re an abusive parent…”Everything else is scarier than me, I’ll protect you, but you never get to point out my errors.” And since they don’t have a framework to understand that something else is possible, the Mephistopholean bargain seems the best option.

The other are the people that we like to pretend don’t exist, who aren’t a demographic in terms of region or economy* but have accepted the inevitability of cruelty and decided that the best possible outcome is to be a mid-level goon who gets to pick who they put the boots to and rob the apartment of. The people who are covert sadists and enjoy the spectacle of breaking the rules because it’s what they wanted to do but are scared of getting caught. The ones for whom a guy who creeps on teenage girls, cheats at everything, and just shamelessly says stupid and cruel things is an aspirational figure.

*but are mostly white, because whiteness is an MLM where you earn the right to abuse power on your own behalf by acting as goons enacting the abuses of power of higher-up members.

Unfortunately there’s a bunch of both where I live…and they’re not perfectly distinct circles.