But what is the GOP doing to appeal to them exactly?
In the last 4 years the GOP has:
- gone on a crusade against science
- packed the Supreme Court with extremists who are out of touch on guns, abortion, environmental issues
- put a SALT cap that basically targets people making 150-500k a year for a tax increase, while giving big businesses and boomers sitting by the pool a tax break
- tried to create race wars that divide their communities
- ranted non-stop about "elites" and portrayed themselves as the "real Americans" unlike the out of touch people in and outside of big cities.
The reality is that college-educated suburbanites have more in common with the people in the big cities they commute to for work than they do with the rural people who form the base of the Republican Party. The GOP is out of touch with them culturally and isn't offering the traditional incentives of a tax cut or fiscal responsibility. Before these people had a choice, social issues or fiscal issues, now it's a no brainer.
Well they actually do have some strong suits. College-educated suburban whites don't support "defund the police" and been frustrated with school closures. And I don't think they want large tax hikes either. They may not like Trump, but they aren't enamored with the democrats' policy positions, espeically on kitchen-table issues.
Problem is, the culture war stuff is what brings in the working class and rural voters. Also, economic populism probably won't do too well with suburbanites as it does in WWC areas. It's very difficult to find a balance to appeal to both blocs.
Assuming the GOP doesn't collapse as a viable political force, in fact it's almost inevitable that they eventually will. However for this to happen America will need to become non-white enough that the current race based lens that politics is currently viewed through naturally dissolves as future generations come to see themselves as just American as opposed to <fill in the blank> American. Alongside this, the most egregious causes of debt for the children of the educated middle classes will have to be solved: student debt, high rents, high property prices, extortionate healthcare etc. With both racial identity and extreme economic inequity gone, or at least severely diminished, politics will realign more along the 'traditional' lines of the wealthier (regardless of education) leaning right and the poorer leaning left. This will be a long process though and won't happen any time soon, although it could be argued that the Biden presidency is potentially the first of many steps in this direction.
The GOP has made some noticeable gains with working-class minorities. A party that exclusively appeals to the interests of the white working-class will struggle to remain relevant. Adding their peers of color will keep them competitive.
