[vanattab]

I think the media and pundits on both sides have constructed mental pictures of the "enemy" in the minds of naive voters, which don't accurately describe the people in the opposing camps. During the Bush and Obama administrations if you did a study where you asked GOP voters to describe how they think DEM voters would describe there political views and vis-versa there was a much bigger gap between what Democrats thought Republicans believed and what Republicans themselves reported then the other way around. Although I have not seen data from the trump era I suspect that the discrepancy would be in both higher in both comparisons.

[Red_Leaves_Flyy]

This didn't really address my questions. What scares Republicans about democrats?

Is it that I want affordable health, eye, and dental care?

Is it that I want poor and minority groups to be protected from exploitation?

Is it that I want religion to stay out of politics and wombs, and pay taxes?

Is it that I want white collar criminals to be prosecuted?

Is it that I want the failed war on drugs to end and get addicts actual rehabilitative care?

Is it that I want our decrepit infrastructure to get maintained?

Is it that I want people of color and women to be protected from hate?

Is it that I want poor and minority people to have the same opportunities as rich kids?

Is it that I want college to be affordable and lead to a better life instead of serfdom?

Is it that I want to get perverse incentives out of prisons?

I can go on. We can argue methods in other posts, but do these mere dreams scare Republicans? If so, why?

[cozuya]

Republicans directly oppose all of those things, because they are, at their core, bad people who are only interested in their personal wellbeing, not of what is best for this country.

[adingus]

And generalizing half the population in the worst way possible is definitely what's best for the country.

[cozuya]

I'd love to hear your thoughts on why Republicans oppose the things that Mr/Ms Flyy posted 9 hours ago. Or anyone else's thoughts. Please.

[adingus]

I don't think you ever get a good answer to that because the answer is ambiguous. Asking why "Democrats" or "Republicans" do anything is asking about a straw man. Many individual voters will have a nuanced opinion about all of those questions. The way a lot of the questions are phrased presupposes Republicans don't care about those things, which I suspect is probably wrong for most.

I think many of those who identify as "Republican" or "Democrat" don't examine most of those points in any detail at all and just simply vote down the ticket. Their opinions are probably not going to reveal any useful information.

For the rest, my guess is its probably a fundamental disagreement about what government should be responsible for. Voting for the government to further some cause is inhertanly voting for parts of it's implementation. I think my libertarian bias is leaking through.