without bringing politics into it, from my reading the news, blogs etc the Republican party seem to do a great fucking job of shooting down any and all attempts to change America for the good, it really does appear to me to be a "im fucking sorted, fuck the rest of em" type mentality, especially when it comes to things like healthcare, workers rights, maternity, holiday pay etc etc all things that the Republican party shit on and i just cant fathom why seeing as the majority of people that vote for them seem to come from states that would benefit the most from a bit of European style socialism
Merely scraping the tip of the political ice berg. There were democrats in office for 8 years before Trump, and they're back in office right now. When is the last time the democrats actually delivered on anything that they promised? The Affordable Care Act made healthcare coverage more complicated and actually increased costs to the point that employers either dropped their benefits altogether or they simply passed along the cost increases directly to their employees. See, I do understand both sides of the fence (I'm a left-leaning libertarian with some conservative views), and I know that these matters are never cut and dry like making late term abortions illegal and such. It's hard to deliver on any promises in America because there's tremendous pork barreling and compromising that takes place to get even a watered down version of a promise through both House and Senate.
I'll give some examples of why Republican shoot down stuff that sounds promising. The Democrats bring a plan to the table that sounds like a Utopian version of Obamacare (or Romney care if you prefer), but tucked into the pages of this healthcare plan are butt loads of proposed regulaltions and laws like parents having zero say into children over the age of 4 deciding to undergo a sex change, prison sentences for parents who fail to use correct preferred gender pronouns, mandatory vaccines for all the things, and let's also make it illegal to drag children to church if they don't want to go. You maybe laughing and sneering, but European socialism is chalk full of overbearing federal government BS, such as the movement in Germany to make home schooling illegal because it bypasses the national political/anti-religious indoctrination that they deem so very important and mandatory.
The reason the vast majority of the people who vote for Republicans vote for them is because most of us have seen how "blue states" operate and don't like it. I lived for more than 12 years on the west coast, and when I moved to the southeast it was like I stepped off a boat onto a new continent. The freedom. In the blue state, it was unlawful to remove
anything from public land. They would place signs letting you know it was prohibited to pick the flowers, pick up any fruit, or remove any native american artifacts -- all artifacts were to be turned over to the state. Want to go fishing? You can do it from a fish and wildlife dock if you have a fishing license, or you can pay to fish from a fishing resort dock. All that land you see along the lake by the road? Absolutely no fishing allowed. In the red state, feel free to pick any flowers, pick up sticks, or do whatever you like. It's public land. Want to camp? Cool. Oh, you found an arrowhead? That's awesome. Native american artifacts are really cool to collect. Want to go fishing? Man, anywhere you can reach the water, provided your car is fully out of the road when parked, is fair game. Oh, there is also tons of public land.
Nah, the left looks at state financial numbers and sneers at the low revenue red states, but they obviously fail to realize that the cost of living is much lower in those states. People are generally very happy in those red states. Everyone I knew in the blue state hated the state government because it can't see past its biggest cities. Anything you want to do, there's a tax for that! There's a tax per tire on the road. There's a tax for trailers. There's a tax on gas. Taxes all around. Tax on sugar. Tax on spending time outdoors (they call it a Discovery pass). Taxes on wild game. Taxes on fish. Taxes because your home is in the city limits. Taxes because your home isn't in the city limits. Taxes because you have a home. Taxes in case you managed to avoid all the other taxes!
When the pandemic hit, I hit the water and went fishing. Back in the ol' blue state, fish and wildlife put a ban on all recreational fishing on the grounds that they couldn't monitor their access points to ensure social distancing was being followed on the docks. Oh, people could still get out in their boats, but absolutely no fishing was allowed....
Who looks dumb in all this?