Democrats and Republicans Aren’t Just Divided. They Live in Different Worlds.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

I'm worried this could lead Republicans to the perverse incentives that Southern Democrats had after Reconstruction ended - to deliberately retard economic growth to cement their hold on power.

Send more people to college? Can't have that. They'll be exposed to that SJW nonsense.

Get more people employed in jobs involving critical thinking and human interaction? No! They'll just start voting for Democrats. They need to be mining coal or ringing up groceries at Dollar General. Nothing more.

Wealthy GOP donors will be fine with that. If they want exposure to growing economies, they can just invest in foreign companies. Meanwhile at home they'd be able to permanently maintain a position where they have the largest slice of a stagnant or shrinking pie, so they will always be at the top of the socioeconomic hierarchy.

Social mobility would reach a standstill, public investment in education and infrastructure would halt. The bottom 75% of the population would be living in dire poverty. The nonwhite elements of that would be excluded from the political process and frequently abused by law enforcement - basically treated like South African blacks or Brazilian pardos. The white poors would be given a sense of purpose in life through televised agitprop and participating in Alt Right vigilante groups, or encouraged to become police officers or join the military; those not interested in or suited to these jobs would be encouraged to stay in their mobile homes in opioid-induced stupors.

The next 24% would be the white bourgeoisie who manage the stagnant industries and provide professional services - defending coal companies when they are sued by the EPA, being the superintendent of the White Christians-only for-profit charter school, writing bad takes for the Heritage Foundation and AEI.

And then there would be the 1% who write the checks to the GOP and are firmly ensconced in their positions of wealth. This group would live in NYC, DC and the Bay Area, and are insulated from the neglect and disinvestment the GOP has treated Flyover Country with. Ironically, they engage in exactly the sort of behaviors the GOP's propaganda demonizes as "liberal elitism." They eat organic food, don't go to church, and vacation in Europe. If their daughters or wives want or need an abortion, they will be able to easily get one.