"One significant reason for those losses is that the Trump administration has declared war on urban America, believing it can simultaneously carry out a vast, militarized mass-deportation campaign and punish what the new far-right elite views as the feckless college-educated progressive political class in the nation's big cities without any collateral damage. That roll of the dice also came up snake eyes last week."
"If you have breathed air in the United States this century, the GOP's loathing of cities is nothing new. It has been more than 17 years since Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, started using the language of "real America" and "real Americans" to describe people who live in small towns and rural areas."
Republican defeats in recent elections reflect broad public disapproval of aggressive national strategies aimed at urban populations. The Trump administration's posture toward cities, including plans for mass deportation and punitive measures targeting college-educated progressive urban voters, alienates large voter blocs. Longstanding GOP rhetoric elevating small-town identity and portraying cities as morally and politically suspect has hardened anti-urban sentiment. Sarah Palin's framing of "real America" and small-town responsibility helped normalize that divide. Continuing to demonize urban America risks eroding the electoral coalition needed for success in 2024 and beyond.
Read at The Nation
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