Why Are Conservatives so Unpopular? · 11:19am Mar 27th, 2021
This is not going to be a blog post discussing how all Conservatives are bad. This is also not going to be me do some FOX News segment where I complain about the ‘good old days’ when people actually liked Conservatives. I am a firm believer in the idea that politics aren’t black or white (and I’m not talking about skin color here).
But one thing I will note; Conservatives are unpopular. This may seem silly, because FOX News is the second-most popular news station. Indeed, that’s usually the Democrats throwing down some Republican outlet’s complaints that they aren’t being heard. Admittedly, the Democrats have a point. But, one thing I will note is that despite its popularity, Conservatives have been really unpopular in the recent years, mainly Conservative presidents.
George W. Bush and Donald Trump both have incredibly low approval ratings, and when you put them next to Obama and (currently) Biden’s approval ratings, it starts to become interesting. W. Bush did have the wildly unpopular Iraq War and Patriot Act, and Trump, well, may have started an insurrection (which depends who you ask, but telling your supporters to march up to the senate and take back what’s rightfully yours definitely makes you look bad, even if that wasn’t the intent). But again, you look at Obama, and he had an unpopular (though not wildly) war, too, the Afghan War.
So, one would argue that Republicans are just unpopular because the left media decided to sweep all the unpopular things that Obama did under the rug and decided to focus on Trump and Bush’s bad things. However, I don’t think that’s quite the case.
Sure, Democrats might be popular because they talk a big game, and hardly ever go through with their talk. That’s a valid standpoint, however, from where I stand, I’ve noticed something.
Democrats are always moving forward, there’s a reason far-left Democrats are considered ‘progressive’. They’re always focused on what's coming up next, and the party’s always changing and evolving. Democrats have been champions of free healthcare, LGBT+ rights, other minority rights, and anything else that would move America ahead. I respect them for that. I quite like having rights.
Republicans however, are sluggish. They’re constantly caught 50 years in the past, they’re very traditional. The party hardly ever moves forward, and they constantly lament about the good old days. However, viewing America through ‘rose-colored glasses’ tends to make everything nowadays seem stupid and unnecessary.
As a prime example; cancel culture. Because the Republican party never moves forward, they need to find little things to talk about, everyone knows what the Republicans think. Thus, they give large amounts of time to things that seem trivial. Cancel culture is a prime example. Should we be concerned about cancel culture? Maybe. But, is it really going to make a difference on a national front? Probably not. Besides, y’all canceled The Beatles in ‘66 (and Queen in ‘84, I’m surprised Green Day made it out alive), don’t even say it’s a new thing.
Republicans have some good ideas. Sometimes, the idea of ‘old-fashioned’ does help, mainly in business. However, the idea of ‘old-fashioned’ also tends to alienate younger people who don’t care if someone is gay or not. I personally think that’s why Republicans are unpopular, it’s because the party hasn’t changed, and there’s not much incentive for younger people to join it. I feel that if the Republican party caught up in some aspects, it’d be a genuinely competitive party.
Maybe that’s just the Libertarian in me. I just feel like Republicans fall behind because the party hardly ever changes.
That’s exactly the reason: they aren’t changing and therefore aren’t growing. They’ve appointed themselves the last bastion of years past. As the world moves forward, they would rather cling to a fading, antiquated culture than adapt with it. Since a lot of them claim moral grounds for their stance; they’ve set themselves up to die on that hill lest they be labeled as traitors to the demographics they’ve appealed to (sometimes outright fleeced) for votes, money, and relevance.
And relevance is really what it boils down to.
People don’t like finding out that something they cared about isn’t all that relevant to the next generation, even more so when the next batch looks back at you and says “you’ve been doing it wrong”.
My existence is political to conservatives.
Democrats aren't much better considering they're also a right wing party.