[kraquepype]

> It provides unaccountable power outside the democratic process.

Doesn't help when the government isn't maintaining or enforcing guardrails for the ultra wealthy.

This is a war on the middle class. Free and fair elections are the last hope that most have to resolve it peacefully, so of course those are under attack.

> I do not understand why anyone else would go along with this.

I've been asking myself that for 10 years. Through both traditional and social media manipulation, they found a way to get enough people to vote against their best interests, and normalize the behavior, that it doesn't matter if a large portion of the country is still paying attention and asking those questions.

[dualvariable]

They've leveraged the culture wars to the point that a good chunk of the rural, economically disadvantaged voters are cool with a northeastern elite billionaire looting the country.

[throw0101a]

“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.” — Lyndon B. Johnson, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lbj-convince-the-lowest-wh...

[dualvariable]

And the condescending tone of that quote only further strengthens the culture wars--liberals love it.

[throw0101a]

The quotation is not condescending to "the lowest white man", but rather is explaining a political/propaganda strategy that was active at the time. Up until that time the racists were inter-mixed between the two parties:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixiecrat

but it was the GOP that actively sought to recruit them:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy

The quotation was describing the creation of the very culture wars we're still living with today. And the evidence shows that this is still going on:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_of_Whiteness

[krapp]

And the fact that people respond to it by attacking the very groups they've been set against rather than the government and elites manipulating them proves how well it works.

See also the apopleptic rage the rural right went into when Hillary Clinton made her "deplorables" remark. Even though she was clearly and explicitly talking about the white supremacists and racists infiltrating the Trump camp - something she was entirely correct about mind you - they chose to trauma bond with the white supremacists and rally around a billionaire pedophile rather than concede a point to a "liberal" in good faith.

[dualvariable]

Liberals are going to find it very comforting that they're not one of "the lowest white men". The people the quote is referring to won't be persuaded at all. It solves nothing. There's no solution offered to the propaganda problem. It is the flip side to the culture wars that it is describing.