Post #2291340

2026-01-29 12:44 UTC

@lycophidion@birds.town The weirdest thing about this for me (living outside the usa): I always understood the republican base to be grounded on- and united in - the fight against an overbearing and too powerfull federal government. How quickly they have become the polar opposite.

Replies (1)

@lycophidion@birds.town 2026-01-29 16:01

@matv1@mastodon.social The Republican Party (like the Democrats) were always a shifting and evolving mixed bag: neocons, neoliberals, libertarians, fascists, etc. Only a razor-thin libertarian section championed full-blown elimination of "big government." It's important to understand, and understand from a class perspective, that the general Republican Party ire is not, and has never been, directed primarily at the state apparatus as a whole, but at the liberal state emerging out of the New Deal, and expanded through struggles from below. Both parties championed the expansion of the military-police apparatus of the state. In fact, following WWII up until the end of the post-war boom, leading sectors of the Republican Party were generally fine with major elements of the New Deal state (social security, GI Bill, etc.). As with the Democrats, they saw these as necessary for the smooth functioning of U.S. capitalism.

Open ##2291341