It seems that political messaging has become less and less tethered to policy. There are a few facets of this that are interesting.
1. Voter preferences, while often veiled in some sort of policy disagreement, are mostly cultural today. Many of the most animating issues of the past 10 years are mostly unaffected by policy: cancel culture, social justice/CRT/racism, trans people, elitism. In my youth, political campaigns were focused on policy distinction: taxes, wars, spending, Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid, etc. This could be selective memory on my part, but the culture war does feel like an attempt to use political elections to determine the winning cultural regime.
2. Electoral outcomes seem to drive norms in polite society. It's not just a meme. People seem to act as if Trump's election has changed what's allowed and disallowed in polite society. It's not clear whether it's due to a more aggressive use of state power to enforce culture or just a melding of culture and politics, but it's odd that a <5% movement in vote share signaled a change in cultural dynamics for the other 95% of societal participants.
3. Policy is often constructed in the interest of signaling rather than creating impact. DOGE did not decrease the deficit and is being disbanded, for instance.
1. Voter preferences, while often veiled in some sort of policy disagreement, are mostly cultural today. Many of the most animating issues of the past 10 years are mostly unaffected by policy: cancel culture, social justice/CRT/racism, trans people, elitism. In my youth, political campaigns were focused on policy distinction: taxes, wars, spending, Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid, etc. This could be selective memory on my part, but the culture war does feel like an attempt to use political elections to determine the winning cultural regime.
2. Electoral outcomes seem to drive norms in polite society. It's not just a meme. People seem to act as if Trump's election has changed what's allowed and disallowed in polite society. It's not clear whether it's due to a more aggressive use of state power to enforce culture or just a melding of culture and politics, but it's odd that a <5% movement in vote share signaled a change in cultural dynamics for the other 95% of societal participants.
3. Policy is often constructed in the interest of signaling rather than creating impact. DOGE did not decrease the deficit and is being disbanded, for instance.