15 Comments
Apr 27Liked by Sheluyang Peng

Your posts are routinely some of the most clear-eyed and rational analyses of macro and micro political trends. Very much appreciate your work and perspective, Sheluyang.

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founding

I think this is the key quote from this: “Progressive activists, despite making up only 8% of Americans, essentially have control of a party that half of Americans vote for.”

That sums up so many problems we have with our current political system right now. Do you think there’s a similar group on the right with the same control over the Republican party?

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Excellent breakdown, man. 🫡

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I’m sending this article to everyone I know. It’s spot on. Thank you.

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Man, I don't know - the core premise of this article, the bit about the Democratic agenda being set by a subset of the party that's whiter and more stridently on the cultural left than the party writ large, is well-argued and rings true. But the frame surrounding it about trans issues reeks of cherry picking! A poll asking "should 13-year-olds get boob jobs" is going to get a pretty overwhelmingly negative response - no surprise there! But in at least some regards trans rights enjoy popular support across the political spectrum - YouGov also did a poll indicating that the vast, vast majority of Americans are in favor of employment protections for transgendered people, including a sizable majority of Republicans (56% for vs 32% against): https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2022/03/18/many-dont-understand-what-transgender-means

I would say it markedly weakens your thesis if your OMG CRAZY FAR-LEFT BOUTIQUE IDEOLOGY AGENDA ITEM or whatever is something that, in its less extreme form, is generally popular within and beyond the Dem base!

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This was an interesting article, however I think issue of Blacks and conservative ideology is more complex than you present it as. While your average working-class black may agree with your average working-class white on most social issues there is one important one that they definitively won't: Race. Whites are much less likely to see racism is being a major problem for Black Americans, more likely to take the cops side when an unarmed black teen is killed, etc. Even if white liberals and working-class blacks don't have much in common, at least the liberals will show sympathy for their struggles.

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That and also giving free money to their base under the guise of various programs.

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