TenuredVulture wrote:There's no doubt that social conservatives have lost every battle they've fought, with the exception of abortion, where they can claim some small victories. Now, often, this is because they're mostly pretty nasty and mean spirited. But even when they're reasonable, like when they want to buy cable channels a la cart instead of one big package, they get nothing, but the rest of us get our four letter words on FX with basic cable!
On economic issues, I think it's fair to say we're really in a world of crony capitalism, with Dems and Reps choosing to enrich different cronies (but Wall Street gets paid no matter what). Our labor movement has made a series of strategic errors--abandoning the South for one. But there is no doubt in my mind that for almost all of us, our employers have a lot more leverage over the conditions of our employment than we do.
While I am more optimistic than most about future economic prospects, I do understand that there is a very real possibility that technology and automation pose a very real threat regarding the employment prospects of our children. For almost everyone, the security enjoyed by our parents is a thing of the past.
I mostly agree with this. I would say that Social Conservatives have been winning on guns for the last 15-20 years though.
But I will also say that "Social Liberalism" is a big tent, and a lot of time encompasses people that end up pooling resources together but really don't care about whether the other interests succeed (Except to the extent it helps their own ends). Like I'm sure that there are people in the BLM movement that think abortion should be completely banned, Union Heads that think we should build a 200 foot wall in Arizona etc etc etc.
What I think is interesting is, as these liberal problems get "solved" in the minds of certain people in these groups, seeing whether social liberalism on the whole continues to receive the same level of support.
The clearest place this could probably happen is with gay rights; there are more than a small number of people that would be classic conservatives, but for the fact that they are gay or at least strongly support the gay rights movement. As conservatives move toward accepting gays (or at least accepting that the law accepts gays) do we see the people that previously supported gay rights now support more conservative candidates? Ditto with other groups as they begin to feel that social liberalism has "done enough" for women, minorities, immigration, etc?
I guess my point is that liberalism can have "victories" while the country might still be moving towards conservatism as a whole.
