I feel like I see a lot of HN/HN-adjacent (pg, his friends, etc) conversation about polarization and elite overproduction that totally misses the asymmetry between the left and the right.
Like, sure, there are plenty of middle-to-upper-middle-class white liberals with “In This House We Believe” signs in their front yards. But while they may be culturally liberal, if you poll them on Medicare for All, wealth taxes, putting workers on corporate boards, or a $15 minimum wage, you’ll probably find that the rich white people of America aren’t clamoring to do anything that would threaten the status of corporations of people with lots of property. However the people who are (like the Amazon workers who just unionized, or the diverse coalition behind Bernie’s campaigns) are more sympathetic than suburban white liberals, and don’t fit as nicely into the horseshoe shape.
Meanwhile the Right is all in line on their agenda. The Right’s rich white folks aren’t worried about their masses voting against corporate interests, and they’ll happily sign off on whatever culture war issues it takes to keep the middle and working class parts of their constituency coming to the polls.
Having both progressive and conservative friends, I have to say that I see just as much division on the right nowadays, as on the left. Trump and Romney, for example, don't get along all that well. Christian conservatives and Tea Party activists have very different priorities on, for example, gay-marriage vs. big banks, and very different attitudes towards big corporations or many other topics. It was, for many years, true that the right was more cohesive than the left, but this seems very different in the last ten years.
Like, sure, there are plenty of middle-to-upper-middle-class white liberals with “In This House We Believe” signs in their front yards. But while they may be culturally liberal, if you poll them on Medicare for All, wealth taxes, putting workers on corporate boards, or a $15 minimum wage, you’ll probably find that the rich white people of America aren’t clamoring to do anything that would threaten the status of corporations of people with lots of property. However the people who are (like the Amazon workers who just unionized, or the diverse coalition behind Bernie’s campaigns) are more sympathetic than suburban white liberals, and don’t fit as nicely into the horseshoe shape.
Meanwhile the Right is all in line on their agenda. The Right’s rich white folks aren’t worried about their masses voting against corporate interests, and they’ll happily sign off on whatever culture war issues it takes to keep the middle and working class parts of their constituency coming to the polls.