I could cite many links that describe the policy shifts of the 20th century between the Republican and Democratic parties. I could highlight how the Democrats began giving up on states rights in favor of human rights in the 40’s, how Lyndon B. Johnson sent the southern conservative Dixiecrats running to their hills, and how the Southern Strategy saw Republicans try to get a foothold among those ostracized southern conservatives. But this information is easy to find and it only serves as a backdrop to what I want to address here.
After the recent conventions I’ve seen Republicans shocked and awed by how the Democratic Party seems to have grabbed so many of their positive traits: patriotism, hope, etc. You even have experts siding with the Democratic Party on economic and security issues, which Republicans long claimed dominion over.
It’s easy to look at Trump and blame him for giving such an opening to Democrats, but I think it’s bigger than that. What I think has happened is that this election cycle has pulled back the layers of both parties and we’re seeing them in their rawest forms. And I think these are the forms we’ve been building towards ever since the parties began to switch their social platforms some 70 years ago. Indeed, the GOP’s newly revised platform even doubles down on social positions that are increasingly unpopular, while the Democratic Party’s platform is revised with progressive positions that are increasingly popular.
An incredible strength the Republican Party has had for decades, at least, is its ability to control messages. This has given them the powerful ability not only to define themselves contrary to their actions, but also define the Democratic Party contrary to theirs. This marketing campaign presented the world with a story that didn’t always line up to the individual events, but the story was so compelling that most people assumed its truth despite the individual events, or they simply preferred it over acknowledging reality.
What Trump has done is undermine that storytelling. What he does can’t be hidden behind a contrary narrative and Republicans have been so busy trying to contain him that they’ve neglected their narratives about the Democratic Party, too.
The net result is that we’re seeing, I think, both parties in their true colors. Our view is no longer compromised and influenced by the marketing and propaganda of the Republican Party. This has left Democrats the opportunity to speak and truly be heard, and Republicans to speak and truly be heard. And some people are dumbfounded by what they’re hearing, even though it’s always been what’s said.