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IMO, one of the most powerful things about our current moment is its illustration of the power of belief and ideology. If you come at politics from a Marxist perspective, you will be wrongly predisposed to believing that material interests primarily drive politics, and that beliefs are ephemeral. But now we live in a moment where educated suburbanites believe in redistributive policy and progressive taxation, while large swaths of the working class oppose it. The silver lining though is I think this means that democrats could unlock massive redistributive change and landslides in the near future, if they can keep educated suburbanites onboard through ideology while finding ways to make inroads with the working class once again. Anyways, as far as the GOP goes, one of the things I find most interesting is the pervasive culture of lying and denial of the truth. How did it get this bad? I mean things were quite bad during Bush’s terms, but since Trump, it’s just normal for everyday people to constantly rationalize bullshit. Whenever something in anyway looks bad for republicans, my trump supporting friends will always give me a million rationalizations. They can never accept a fact. It’s like lying and denial has been spread as a mimetic disease in the party

Thank you for uploading this. I love ❤️ it.

People are mad with the Democrats not playing the game like Republicans. Win at all costs and fight to win your issue no matter what.

Thank you so much for the video!

I would add recommendations for: _Reaganland: America's Rightward Turn 1976-1980_ - Rick Perlstein _Playing With Fire: the 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics_ - Lawrence O'Donnell _The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market_ - Nancy Orestes and Erik M. Conway

The "party of Lincoln" died in 1876, when Republicans made a deal with souther states to win the presidency. In return, Republicans sold out reconstruction and Freedmen throughout the country. From that day forward, Republicans turned a blind eye to racial repression and ushered in the Era of Jim Crow, which lasted nearly a century.

Hate to break it to you.... the GOP has been exactly what it is now since about the 1930s. That's about a century of ALWAYS and ONLY being about "identity politics" and "culture wars" and the robber-baron shell game of "stick-it-to-the-poor-and-feed-the-wealthy." Congratulations on seeing the GOP's megachurch grift... But you haven't yet realized all the lies of the Reagan Administration. There is NO DIFFERENCE between the "pArTy Of sAiNt ReAgAn" and the party of Celebrity Apprentice. Arguably, there was no difference since Goldwater. Get wiser, friend. And please vote American Democratic Party. 🇺🇸🇺🇳

If you voted for the Republican Party, I’m sorry, but you’re an idiot. It’s not personal-it’s just the truth. I understand that people have legitimate grievances with the Democratic Party, and yes, the leadership has shifted toward neoliberalism over the years. However, it’s critical to recognize that this shift was, in part, a response to the Republican Party’s devastating legacy. Reagan’s administration ushered in an era of unchecked neoliberalism and trickle-down economics, gutting the middle class and prioritizing the wealthy. Clinton, rather than breaking from this trajectory, doubled down on key aspects of Reaganomics, attempting to rebrand it as centrist “third-way” politics. But make no mistake: while Democratic leadership has plenty of issues-particularly their embrace of austerity-the Republican Party is the root of the rot. Their relentless drive to dismantle the social safety net and enrich the wealthiest few at the expense of everyone else is why we are facing such widespread inequality and financial instability today. They’ve convinced voters to reject their own prosperity under the guise of “freedom,” all while laying the groundwork for a system that mirrors oligarchy. Yes, the Democratic establishment has moved to the right in recent decades. However, the base of the party-and many lower-level politicians-still prioritize policies rooted in populism and the common good. These grassroots movements are fighting for real change, even if the leadership often lags behind. By contrast, the Republican Party offers no substantive, economically viable policies that would improve the lives of working people. Instead, they loot public resources, gut labor protections, and rely on dangerous identity politics that not only stoke division but are laying the foundation for World War III. The Republican Party has flung the doors wide open for the resurgence of fascism-not just in the United States, but globally. Fascism, by its very nature, exalts one group over others and scapegoats entire populations, breeding hatred and conflict. As fascist movements gain momentum across the world, the likelihood of large-scale wars grows exponentially. Fascism doesn’t just create conflict; it ensures it. And when fascist ideologies collide on a global stage, history tells us where it leads-World War III. The GOP thrives on manipulating the most gullible among us, distracting from their pillaging of the American public. Voting for them isn’t just misguided-it’s a direct endorsement of inequality, regression, and, ultimately, global catastrophe.

You clearly come at this from an “outside” perspective on the party. That’s okay, most members of the party naturally wouldn’t know everything about how things came to be as they are either, but your shortcomings in understanding are at least seemingly apparent. That is, if you’re being genuine. I hope you are. - So-called “Us versus them” politics is all of politics. From left to right. Economic and social. That’s your politics. It’s a dumb shallow line used to attack ”the other” in politics, not so ironically or cluelessly. The 1984 image you show is in very bad taste. The mainstream media double think and flip-flopping along with the “vote blue no matter who” crowds puts any analogy on Trump or the GOP to shame. - Still claiming in 2024 that Trump has no consistent policies is just asinine and absurd. He’s been voicing his positions on trade with China and others, taxes, borders, more hands off foreign policy in a post-Cold War world, American jobs, and more self-sufficiency when it comes to vital industries since the late 1980s and 1990s. - You need to learn more about the Republican party in Abraham Lincoln’s time. It could never just get elected based on anti-slavery positions which ranged from abolition to halting its expansion to just trying to keep the balance between the states. The vital slavery issue was the main reason it came into existence though, that is true. The Republican Party, since it’s founding embraced the American system of Henry Clay, being pro-industry, pro-big and small business, pro-assistance for settlers across the American West, tariffs, and federally assisted funding of infrastructure projects to connect the states for further economic development and interdependence. All while following a George Washington inspired unentangled foreign policy. - The movement is bigger than Trump. But without him, the Establishment would’ve kept their stranglehold on the various fractions that make up the Republican base too much of the same degree for years to come. For that alone, he is and will remain a hero to many. Including myself. - Economic questions are vital. Often prominent for obvious reasons. However, at the same time, the social issues will always be vital. They must remain prominent for the simple fact that they are prominent. From the origin of Morality, the value of human life, Natural Law, Marriage, Family, societal organization, to transgenderism, towards ideological pushes towards trans-humanism, These are matters that make or break both the individual and Civilization. - One also needs to understand the effects WW1, the aftermath, the New Deal political machine, WW2, The Cold War compromises forged into the three legged footstool of so-called “conservatism,” the Activist Supreme Courts, Liberalism versus Evangelicalism versus Catholic versus other forms of Christianity in America, the results of consistent short-term compromise to the point of institutional capture in higher educational and cultural institutions, The Austrian School, Libertarianism as a new but different step built from Liberalism compared to Leftism, the end of The Cold War, Pat Buchanan, paleo-conservatism versus neoconservatism and neoliberalism versus the National Populist flux, demographic shifts combined with identity politics on the left, the global and domestic war on terror, and more all had on the GOP. Or more accurately, those who made up its various factions over the decades. - I think that’s all I’ll have to say for now. The books mentioned: - Tim Alberta, American Carnage, book lecture - Geoffrey Kabaservice, Rule and Ruin, book lecture - Patrick Ruffini, Party of the People, book lecture - Lewis L. Gould, Grand Old Party, book lecture

Evil Geniuses by Kurt Anderson.

I like your first two book reviews. It's especially critical for me as I am in that group of Black men who changed sides. I was in the Bernie camp, but I was different in two ways a) always socially conservative b) motivated by domestic politics. Trump is obviously on the other side of that coin, but won me over when he publically called out the disastrous policies of the state department globally, which I at the time, was a detriment to domestic policy. I didn't vote for him until 2020, but I've been happy with some of the decline in American warmongering (until Ukraine)

Good video. Excited for your channel. But, uh... the reason the Republicans have a trifecta is because there was a 7% shift away from all incumbents worldwide, due to COVID inflation. It is foolish of everyone to say the reason the Rs won or the Ds lost is because <personal pet cause>. It was none of that. It was inflation. We have the data. It crushed every incumbent around the world-most way worse than Kamala.

So excited to have found you! I am enjoying your level-headed discussions and book recommendations. Sounds a great informal book club

I've heard so much about Tim Alberta and now I see why. Definitely going to pick up those two books since they seem like they are a part 1 and part 2 of each other, respectively. Also, picking up Patrick Ruffini's Party of the People. I'm kind of baffled of the multi-cultural coalition the GOP has gained. I have a theory, but would love to learn of Patrick Ruffini's analysis.

Also, Heather Cox Richardson’s To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party, and How the South Won the Civil War. Two great clarifying books!

Religion is the lack of truth or beauty, which explains the Latino Black self sacrifice.

Not even at it's founding. The Republicans were formed of 3 groups in order to have the numbers they needed to compete as they did. Only a third of them were against slavery. So the Republicans had it add to their platform for their support. During Lincoln's administration there was a lot of push back from within the party about how the issue was being ignored. It was only once Lincoln could use it as a tool against the South did it become a focus. Even when it did there was compromises with states on slaves, and they lamented that freeing the slaves from the south was taking too much time when they could easily free the slaves in the north but didn't. Don't be fooled. They did get there. Begrudgingly...

Okay, dude. You've got yourself another subscriber. I'm only a third of the way through this video and already think you're smart, likeable, and awesome. I totally agree about us being in a new guilded age. BTW, you might want to add Principals for Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dalio to your TBR list. The guy seems to be of questionable ethics, however his research is amazing. He's a hedge fund guy who wanted to be able to predict what the market would do, so he embarked upon an exhaustive study of world history to look for trends. What he discovered is that civilizations go through something he calls the Big Cycle, which describes how their economies start out, grow, become prosperous, turn decedent and lazy because of that prosperity, and begin to decline as a result. In this decline, the gap between the rich and and poor grows, frustrated people turn to populist leaders, and ultimately some form of revolution takes place that resets the playing field. Then the whole thing starts over. Sound familiar? The thing is, the revolution isn't always violent. FDR accomplished that era's revolution through the New Deal. This theory goes hand in hand with one described in The Fourth Turning by Neil Howe and William Strauss, which says civilizations proceed through a series of four stages. (Howe has recently released a follow-up book about the situation we're in now.) These books are worth reading because they offer hope that things will resolve, and ultimately in a way that brings a new progressive era, because that's what's happened over and over again throughout history. (Though to be fair, with past empires like the British and Dutch, we didn't have the capacity to blow the planet to smithereens or allow it to cook itself through inaction. And we didn't have mass communication, let alone social media, to assist in spreading misinformation.) Oh, one more thing. Your avatar is totally adorable.

As a black man should you qualify that Abe's Rep party was against slavery for moral reasons or economic etc reasons?

Excellent content. Subbed and watching all preceding videos. Full transparency, I voted for Trump in both '20 and '24 elections. I have a strong desire to encourage those around me to view "the other side" as human beings created in the image of God and to treat them as such. I am encouraged to see you have similar goals. I am very concerned about how unsympathetic the right can be toward the concerns of the left. I hope to be able to converse with people of any political position and leave with both parties encouraged and their understanding sharpened. I have learned great things from you in only an hour or so, and hope to learn much more.

Really well formulated and organized! I love your clear and informative video description with the book titles and chapters clearly listed-subscribed!

I want to leave a comment that says more than "Thanks, these seem really informative," but it's too early and I haven't had my coffee yet, so this rubbish is all you get, sorry. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

The Screwing of the Average Man (1974) by David Hapgood

Heather Cox Richardson is a historian who specializes in the history of the Republican party, and would be a good addition.

First time watching your content - well done! You’re not just spouting your opinions - you’re doing your homework. You’re doing research giving exposure to worthwhile authors. Keep up the good work! I’ve added several things to my reading list - thx!

I found this video very well done and unbiased, you deserve more subs keep it up

A lot of people choose to turn their cheek to history. We know the old saying and we still see it happen. Thank you for giving a comprehensive guide for us who want to learn. 😊

👍 I just found your channel and I'm so pleased! I'm subscribed now and looking forward to seeing more of your videos.

Ive been saying this for a while - i noticed bigger changes after obama became president. To be fair, i was 8 when he was elected but i noticed my parent's values shifted far, far away

There was a shift in what republican party was around the 90s, is Lincoln was alive he would sure be a Democrat!! The now MAGA movement is almost an equivalent of the confederate state!!

Another great vid, you deserve so many more subs!!

As though I needed more books on my to read list 😭😭😭

We’re seeing a slow-rolling coup. Anyone who has had the displeasure of reading the “Discovery Institute” literature (“The Wedge Document”) knows there has been a Christian Nationalist plot to overthrow the government by legal means, installing their adherents at local levels first and gradually work their way up to the presidency over twenty years. I read that document in 2008, more than a decade into the plot.

Not going to lie, when I saw a black man talking about the GOP I expected either a bitter liberal or a half baked tech bro. I'm very happy to see how lucid and sober you were. Looking forward to your other videos!

Milquetoast, is what allowed populism to take over. The media revolution is what started us that way. It has happened before, Luther and the printing press, Hitler and the radio, now Trump and internet social media.

On YT: The Real Reason the Middle Class Was Left to Die! Hidden History Of The American Dream Part I Reagan was selected to do one job - carve away at the middle class. Vance and Trump will continue to privatize public assets, carving away as much of the middle class as possible, as has been done BY BOTH PARTIES over the past 50 years. They have all been following David Koch's libertarian platform of 1980, to carve away at the middle class and government agencies, down to just the military, courts and police force. MUSK AND THIEL'S PLAN FOR FUTURE: "Since taking office in December 2023, Argentine libertarian Javier Milei has done a speedrun of Yarvin’s and THIEL’s ideas, taking his country through economic shock therapy and PRIVATIZATION in his first year - including cutting pensions for workers, slashing public services (he campaigned with a chainsaw), and opening the country’s resources to foreign corporations. “EVERYTHING THAT CAN BE IN THE HANDS OF THE PRIVATE SECTOR,” MILEI TOLD A LOCAL RADIO STATION, “WILL BE IN THE HANDS OF THE PRIVATE SECTOR.” Earlier this year, Thiel visited Milei in Argentina, with the new president’s agenda underway. After the meeting, Thiel reportedly remarked “Milei’s ideas are as relevant globally as they are for Argentina. MUSK has championed Milei from the start. Just a month ago, he remarked “President [Milei] is doing an incredible job restoring Argentina to greatness!”-and, with eerie similarity to Thiel’s comments, said this to Milei: ”The example you are setting with Argentina will be a helpful model for the rest of the world.”

I read Jesus and John Wayne by Krisin Kobes Du mez this week and I learned so much. Books help me make sense of this world.❤

I definitely agree with you that you can’t convince someone to understand your world view by dehumanizing and degrading people. But what I’m struggling with is how do you try to see other people’s world view when their world view is dehumanizing in itself? The way the right has taken away women’s bodily autonomy is one of the most dehumanizing things you can do to a person. That person is no longer being treated as a human being they’re being treated as an object or a baby making machine. The way that Trump talks about immigrants as poisoning the blood of our country is dehumanizing. The way Trump talks about trans people is extremely dehumanizing. As a women and as someone who has a trans family member these are not things that we can just agree to disagree about they’re differences in values and morals. I won’t go out of my way to attack someone or put them down but I’m also not going to respect it. I understand that people are more than their political views and that there’s a big difference between a Trump voter and a Trump supporter but none of those things were deal breakers to them. I’m not going to sit back and allow people dehumanize me or my family and allow them to take away our rights and freedoms.

why is is a despicable human being more than clinton or harris? he talks like a WWE wrestler sometimes? Said some PR-ok stuff, like 99% of people ever? I can't get over my head how people could vote for Harris other than just having the TV be their source of political knowledge. The democratic party that doesn't elect it's next leader in the race, the democratic party that plays behind the scene to make sure Sanders doesn't get the vote, and so on and so on. like, what is it going to take to shake you out of it. Stein was the no genocide and no wars, invest at home candidate but you failed. better luck next time. edit: Trump plays himself as a wildcard that might or might not play along the deep state agenda. He killed less people than the other presidents before him. and tried to de-escalate with our brothers and sisters from other countries around the world who have different ways of being. we can tolerate the Saudi royalty or G3n0 1sr3l, but we gotta make sure the little North Korea or big Russia get so injured and feel so threatened they might feel like tripping a nuclear war. The hypocrisy is so blatant, I don't mind people voting for Trump (as long as it's not "yeah I love trump cause I frekin hate X and X people, and I want muh freedooooom"). edit 2: he threathens democracy? the democrats just canceled democracy to have kamala (and even bidden) running!!! bro?! 😥 Edit 3: just stop trying to police the world. get rid of your thousands of war bases around the world. take care of your people, reign in your mega-corporations, become a futuristic nation again. Sincerely, one of your canadian neighbour (we have similar problems, being western allies).

I understand it's important to empathize with people in almost every situation, but I disagree with taking this approach with these people. Most republicans and Trump supporters don't bring forth any genuine care, but they have continued to throw racist and sexist dog whistles or blunt comments. The phrase "Your body, my choice," is a great example.

"The end cannot justify the means, for the simple reason that the means employed determine the nature of the ends produced."

Also, the fact that you used “woke” as a framing for one of the reasons “the left” lost, proves even the people who are against Trump have adopted his framing. A good documentary that comes to mind is Heaven’s Gate: the cult of cults. On a small scale it’s exactly what’s happening right now. Also watch Q:Into the Storm. Both on Max

7:02 how do you get 73 million people to vote for him again? You need large propaganda platforms creating an us vs them narrative every waking second. They would blame democrats for everything because they know democrats aren’t going to do what they campaigned on because of Manchin and Sinema’s love for the filibuster. Then have your favorite foreign country have a year long genocide because their prime minister would rather have Trump. Next, is the pièce de resistance, have the “opposition party,” campaign on nothing but negative things about Trump, which does nothing because people are already trained to disbelieve negative info about him. The “opposition party,” then does not run on anything popular like the Child Tax Credit or Universal Pre-k and the “independent” or “undecided” voters they’re trying get aren’t convinced at all. And bringing in MAGA’s enemy Liz Cheney was the worst move out of all. Dems and Republicans didn’t like her for different reasons. The dems ineptitude of even trying to win working class voters was one big reason why they failed.

I respectfully disagree that “woke culture” lost dems the election. Woke culture was completely absent from dems campaign and Woke activists are not the face of the Democratic Party. As a Christian and former Republican, now independent, I noticed the GOP manufactures culture wars over say, trans people, because they have nothing to offer economically to working people. Say what you want, if every transgender person vanished tomorrow, would prices come down? Would people be able to afford their own home? Would they be able to afford healthcare? Would it be any easier to pay their rent, or medical debt, or student loans? The answer is no. And Republicans can’t (& don’t want to) solve these issues so they offer culture wars instead. It’s all a massive red herring and I’m always surprised that decade after decade, people continue to fall for the okie-doke. Dems dislike the populist activist wing of their own party. When they do use identity politics, it is only to give them a veneer of progressivism to cover up the fact that they aren’t interested in populist economic reform either, as *both parties are beholden to corporate capital interests.* As for the public, they are tired of the status quo & the institutions failing to improve people’s lives, so they rejected the establishment and voted for a populist to shake things up. The problem is, Trump is a fake populist, who will not only _not_ solve their problems, but will likely exacerbate them. Unfortunately, many Americans are easily duped by his strong rhetoric, celebrity charisma, and an multi-million dollar ecosystem of disinformation and conspiracy theories. They don’t have the media literacy skills, time, or will to decode his faux-populism. 🤷🏾‍♂️ that doesn’t make me think less of them but it does make me feel we are reaching crisis-levels of low critical thinking skills 🚨 🆘 😅 Sorry for the long post, enjoyed your video. ✅

I think you're leaving some context out of Donald Trump's press response to the events in Charlottesville. He explicitly stated that he's "not talking about the neo-nazis and the white nationalists" and that these groups should be "condemned totally", and has repeatedly denounced and condemned white supremacists and neo-nazis on numerous occasions before, during, and after this event. th-cam.com/video/RGrHF-su9v8/w-d-xo.html

A major part of the problem in preventing dialogue is the cens-rship on social media. I've tried to make several c-mments and it appears my main acct has been shdowbnned, meanwhile Dmocrats have repeatedly supported restrictions on free speech on social media, and things like this have resulted in restricting open dialogue for everyday Americans, for regular opinions that many people have. Anyway, this is a great video and it's refreshing to hear someone speak without trying to vilify the other side.

Everyone always thinks they're good because they're the heroes of their own narratives and never the villains. That role is reserved for everyone else who they see as working against their personal interests, which again is affected by the bias created by their psychological phenomenology. People see themselves as good when in reality they just are as 'good' and 'bad' are subjective value judgments. As such nothing they do can ever be bad as only bad people do bad things. This circular reasoning is what makes people do things that harm others while thinking they're good because it was done by them and thus it's good. In addition to this, people think they have conscious control over themselves. This is incorrect as anything they do habitually is controlled by their unconsciousness and then interpreted in a way in their consciousness that fits their personal narrative, again, the interpretation is affected by their psychological phenomenology. This is trying to explain an incredibly long subject that takes about six months of concentrated studies to learn in a simple way in 10 lines. If interested in more information there's an abstraction here, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology_(psychology). No one who voted for Donald Trump did so for a good reason, they tell themselves they did, as the information to tell that he was lying was easily available and they never searched for it until they found out that they would be affected by the pain they thought only others would feel. These are just the facts and are inarguable. What can be argued is how they got to that point of thinking because the instinctual behaviour of people is to help the people of their own "tribes." This is learned sociopathy signified by a lack of empathy and a focus on personal interest only. People say they did it for this and that reason, again, that's their psychological phenomenology speaking and that they were fooled. The reality is that they still voted for him despite the information being readily available. They wanted to be fooled and went willingly into this and only got buyer's remorse when they found out that his actions are going to affect them too. There is nothing inherently good or bad in people. The only thing people inherently are is existing. Their actions as judged by others can be either good or bad, this is subjective and what's good in one's eyes is bad in another's. What's objective is the result of their actions, are they harmful or beneficial? and this action is immensely harmful.

Serrrrriously! It makes me so depressed that we have to talk about the consequences of dehumanizing people. I've been trying to talk to people about this for years and I just ended up being hated by the Leftists who I tried to reason with

Respectfully disagree. We don't ever humanize fascists....ever. There are times in history where you have to fight, or be killed ourselves. I can actually prove he and his movement is fascist, read the Holocaust Museums "warning signs of fascism." It will make you realize we CANNOT accept this.

So we turning "the other cheek"? Still? 🤔 400yrs of "turning the other cheek" and we're STILL turning "the other cheek"? 🤨 Nah bro. Get with your tribe and stop trying to bring everybody into the cookout, not everyone deserves it. You need to read more books on real, deep down human nature and understand that a LOT of people are built different 🙄