Good perceptive post here, but the last 'graph doesn't quite ring true:
Republican economic policy has always promoted the interests of corporations and the rich. Once upon a time, this wasn't even an issue of contention. Everyone knew it and acted accordingly. The GOP's great triumph over the past three decades has been to gull the American public into believing that it's no longer the case. Their success has been nothing short of astonishing.
Of course they've received some major assists from a right-wing media apparatus, a complaisant corporate media apparatus that often gives their bullshit a pass in the interest of 'objectivity", and a federal court system that's stocked with Federalist Society alumni. But bigger picture, they couldn't have succeeded without a weak, divided and corporate-friendly opposition which still relies on New Deal populism to sell itself to voters (and to differentiate itself from the rich people) but which increasingly governs like a cobbled-up coalition of center-right technocrats. Which is another way of saying, over the past 30 years, Republicans have been the more reliable brand. Their product may be toxic, but voters can be reasonably assured that they'll get some facsimile of what they've been promised of they rust Republicans with power. Considering how successful they've been at it, perhaps Team Democrat would consider a similar consumer outreach sometime. It's not easy convincing people to vote for you if they're convinced you can't deliver the goods.
---Vitelius
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