Right now, they’re fighting over whether to go to war with Russia or China or both. Republicans are more anti-China and want to stop funding Ukraine so they can focus on China.
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I've noticed this pattern forming as well as election season picks up and Ukraine turns into a stalemate. Can you elaborate at all on why this fight is happening though? Who are the winners and losers if there's a pivot away from focusing on Europe to focusing on China?
With Russia-gate and Russian semi-whiteness, and Russian Homophobia Republicans see them as potential Allies against the evil commies in China. Some Republicans are also friends with Russian oligarchs. They see China as the obvious enemy as they are Asian, Communist, and an economic threat. Democrats are more anti-Russia because they are the scapegoat for why Trump won, they are homophobic, and they are occupying an anti-imperialist position. Dems wish they could go to war with both, but are not sure if the money and firepower is there.
Say someone is apolitical. "Maybe I should get invested in politics" they think. They only know of the contradictions between the democrats and republicans because that is mostly what is shown. They need to fight to have buy in to the system. By making it so obvious that you have a choice it hides how much you don't have a choice.
I guess there is a divide within the bourgeoisie in some sense. Mostly a difference in industry.
Republicans represent manufacturing, agriculture, hotels, oil, and many small business industries.
Democrats represent lawyers, entertainment, finance, and tech industries
But then still, why invest so much into it? Surely many of those companies would rather pocket the extra profits than spending it on some kind of elaborate political theater performance. But they all play ball, they all invest in their own little cadres of corrupt officials, so there must be something to be gained from these little political battles beyond just a conspiracy to hoodwink the working class.
I think that's more to the core of my question though, if democrats represent tech, entertainment, etc. and republicans represent manufacturing, agriculture, etc., what are the contentious economic policies that cause that split?
I think I can oversimplify this to a difference in vision of what workers they want to exploit:
Democrats support policies that create workers that are highly educated and culturally sophisticated to do more work in their industries, have a consumer base for those goods and services, and be able to suppress wages with the abundance of these kinds of workers.
Republicans want as many uneducated workers as possible to scramble for the few low paying jobs that exist to keep their industries afloat.
Anti abortion laws create people that are desparate, both the women and the born children. Allowing abortion allows high end uterus-having workers to work longer putting off having children to be more effectively exploited. Our immigration policy creates workers of ambiguous legal status that can be abused to work for less than legal wages. Whereas industries supported by democrats want to exploit the most technically adept from around the world for as long as possible.
No real change can occur if it undermines existing industrial interests, thus social democratic policies are suppressed by both parties even if many industries would benefit from them, particularly the Finance industry.