How much do social issues ACTUALLY matter to you

> I come in peace as what many these days would probably call a “far right” conservative. I am pro-choice, don’t care who gets married, don’t care what race or gender you are.

Congratulations, you’re not far-right.

For us to answer the rest of your questions, you should probably list specific issues.

I do. I also care about the economic issues. The two are intertwined.

I was literally only allowed to marry the man I love 12 years ago, and that marriage only got federal recognition 9 years ago. I have a trans friend who moved to another country because she was that scared of the trajectory of the treatment of trans people in America.

So yes, I care about social issues.

R: “I’m going to tell you how to live your life”

D: “Why don’t you let me live my life how I want to?”

R: “WOAH, why are you making this such a big deal? Why is this so important to you?”

“The biggest disagreements between our parties are seriously so insignificant in day to day American life.”

I feel like I should point out that while these sorts of social issues don’t affect everybody, for the people they do affect they can be extremely impactful. They don’t affect me personally, but I care about them because I have empathy for those they do.

Do I care?

Enough to transition as a youth through DIY. I walked through abuse and foster care to do it too. So, yeah, it mattered that much.

Social issues matter a whole lot but they’re not separate from economic issues. They feed into each other and I think all economic issues are, at their root, social issues since they involve how humans interact with each other. I prefer to think of them all as “socioeconomic issues”. Instead of weighing one category of issues over the other, we should view them as interconnected.

That said, I do think that the Democratic Party and liberals generally (as opposed to leftists) *do* focus on the social aspects of many societal issues as a way of distracting from economic issues, because as capitalists they are complicit in a lot of the economic issues we’re all facing.

> I come in peace as what many these days would probably call a “far right” conservative. I am pro-choice, don’t care who gets married, don’t care what race or gender you are.

This does not make you far right. It doesn’t even put you on the right in itself. It would in general indicate you are on the left.

> In fact social issues hardly matter to me because it is the economy that determines living conditions. Everything else is just a sideshow and matters to a very small percentage of people.

This is what puts you on the right and somewhat invalidates what you’re saying above. There are in fact systemic issues that effect people. We live in a society, not an economy.

> But it seems like the dialogue surrounding these issues is a resounding majority of what is discussed at the DNC, outside of bashing Trump or whatever.

This sounds like you haven’t actually watched any of the DNC or engaged in mainstream coverage of it, but are rather getting coverage from right wing sources. While there are certainly references to the various identities of different Americans, the incredibly inclusive and about way more than race and gender and sex and religion.

> I grew up in a democrat heavy area. Most people were democrats because of Clinton-like beliefs. Very straightforward ideas like progressive taxation, anti-war, investing in public infrastructure, etc. All ideas I consider fair and of real value.

Which haven’t changed on the left.

> The biggest disagreements between our parties are seriously so insignificant in day to day American life. Yet they dominate news cycles and debates.

When you are running on an agenda that would naturally get maybe 2% of the population to support it, you need to create culture war issues to go find the other 49%. These things are issues because if they weren’t issues Republicans could never form a coalition with the agenda it has.

If Republicans did not have white identity politics, they wouldn’t be a party at all. Or if they were, they would be a normal center right coalition.

I am a gay man and a public school teacher.

Social issues very much matter to me, and not really by personal choice.

They matter a lot and they matter to me.

>because it is the economy that determines living conditions

Gay marriage decides on a lot of living conditions. Taxes, insurance benefits, social security benefits, whether or not a significant other is recognized as family or next of kin in the event of a medical emergency. You can’t say only some people can have these rights and it’s not a big deal because it doesn’t affect living conditions when it clearly does.

50% of the country are AFAB but thank you for calling us all sideshows. 10-25% of known pregnancies, KNOWN, are miscarriages. They often need D&Cs or to take abortion pills. Their access in many states have been limited. The Kate Cox Case in Texas proved it isn’t up to doctors, that women have to actively be dying before it’s safe to abort. There are also certain municipalities that have effectively put in travel bans for women traveling to get abortions. Further taking away our autonomy. Does that not affect living conditions for an entire state of women?

Explain to me how wanting a good economy isn’t a reason to support democrats? I assume you heard Bill Clinton’s speech at the DNC—of 51 million jobs created over the last presidential tenures, 50m were created during Dem tenures and 1m during Republican tenures. But they sure can increase the deficit to give tax breaks to the richest Americans! Not clear how that improves the economy.

You are confusing social issues WITH AMERICAN CITIZENS RIGHTS, FREEDOM AND LIBERTY

I mean I’m socially conservative. If Maters in some sense

Social issues affect me much more. I’m part of the minority of people who I think you were referring to when you said it doesn’t affect most people.

I feel like the economy is mostly affected by bills passed in Congress and those bills have to go through the Senate which almost always means it requires both Republicans and Democrats to vote for it. So while economic differences between the two parties may be big, it doesn’t really end up mattering.

When you talk about “everyday economic issues” are you referring to stuff like gas prices and inflation? If so, I’d argue the President doesn’t really have an ability to control that regardless of who’s in charge.

What do you mean when you say Democrats are pushing division on social issues? If Republicans had not overturned abortion, weren’t currently filing lawsuits to overturn gay marriage, didn’t keep passing weird bills banning trans people from public spaces and didn’t pass a bill requiring the Ten Commandments in public schools, we’d have nothing to fight about. Our side just wants to be left alone.

Yikes. Social issues (like abortion, access to birth control, and IVF) currently affect, have previously affected, or will affect a little more than HALF of the entire American population. Saying it doesn’t matter because so few Americans are affected is ridiculously out of touch with reality. The fact that Democrats can and do win entire elections on these issues means they are important. Things not being important to *you* does not make them unimportant to everyone else. And, frankly, that perception of the world that you get to decide what is and is not significant for everyone else is what is fundamentally wrong with conservatism.

You say you don’t care, but, Democrats are up against a party that is actively bringing us backwards on a number of these issues.

Thanks to Trump Roe v Wade was overturned and women are having to go to courts to determine if the risk to their life is large enough to justify an abortion, even with doctors saying “she needs this done!” With Roe v Wade overturned a number of other issues are back on the menu for conservatives, like more strict measures against contraceptives, especially emergency contraceptives which they erroneously believe are the same as abortions. The right to privacy is also responsible for much of the progress we’ve made regarding LGBTQ+ rights, which yes, many conservatives are trying to erode.

These issues do in fact matter.

But sure, there’s plenty of other really good reasons to oppose Republicans, Trump in particular. Trump is a fascist, he tried to overturn the last election, his authoritarian tendencies have gone almost entirely unchecked by Republicans, and in fact they’re following along with many of his illiberal and undemocratic measures.

I don’t think the president should be using the Insurrection Act to use the military on US soil as their own personal police force, as Trump wants to do.

I disagree with Republican’s funneling of power to the presidency while eroding any checks on the presidency. They’re going along with it because they’re either fascists themselves (the MAGA crowd), or they hope that they’ll keep getting things they want out of it (evangelicals, big business Republicans).

Economically, I thought Trump did pretty poorly. His economic policy was basically “spend like we’re in a recession during the longest period of economic growth in our history”. That’s because he doesn’t actually care, he just wants to see big numbers. It doesn’t matter to him that once the inevitable economic crash occurred, we had fewer tools to deal with it (taxes were slashed, we already spent a ton of money, interest rates were already near zero).

His presidency was also exceedingly corrupt, he repeatedly abused his authority as president, and Republicans have no interest in holding him back.

For foreign policy, he’s likely to cut or end funding for Ukraine, which will allow Russia to steamroll them and keep threatening countries around them. He’s opposed to NATO and basically every one of our allies, and instead aligns himself with our geopolitical adversaries, like Russia. He was viewed as a total moron on the global stage and had our allies and adversaries publicly laughing at him. He weakened US power on the world stage, and has led Republicans to oppose the liberal order the US has pioneered since WW2 in favor of a multipolar world with China and Russia as major powers.

People don’t just hate Trump for no reason. There are a lot of good reasons why pretty much everyone outside of his immediate base, including more than half of his previous administration, thinks he was absolutely horrible and is unfit to be president.

In presidential politics, social issues are pretty much the only things that matter to me.

To put it simply, I am a proponent of small government. I want workers to solve disputes without needing government intervention. I am deeply cynical about government and idealistic about government, particularly presidential overreach. I honestly don’t want the president to have an economic agenda or an immigration policy, or countless other policies, I want Congress to do their jobs. Really, a just want the president to focus on promoting civil liberties with the Department of Justice and foreign policy as Commander in Chief.

Yes, because my location always sweeps our atrocities under the rug (only the homophobia is public knowledge, but only because of the laws). Foreigners of all races and ethnicities seem to hate hearing about us being held accountable for it, they almost look as though they’re being personally attacked. It’s basically deemed xenophobic to say anything negative about us, even if it’s a fact or an actual case of bigotry that some of us did. This puts me in a very privileged position where I could have easily denied all of this and no one would have batted an eye if I did. But I don’t want to do this. If I don’t speak up, change will not come.

I would not feel safe if I had a biracial kid here, I do not feel safe as someone with foreign blood. While I do think that this place is a goner (not talking about the US, as you may have noticed in the part about homophobic laws being public knowledge), at least I could lead the diaspora to not fuck things up like some of us did in some Western European countries. Some of us have attacked gay people and racial minorities in Germany. If we don’t force foreigners to look at the uncomfortable truth and we don’t hold ourselves accountable for the bad apples in our community, who are we to criticize others and how does that make us any different from the people perpetuating all of this.

Let me be clear, I’m not a fan of collective responsibility. But seeing how much privilege (being able to avoid accountability) my first nationality grants me, I’m afraid that my case is an exception.

The idea that Democratic politicians are “leading the charge” on social issues is just plain false.

The Democratic position is “live and let live” while Republicans try to make life as miserable as possible for various minorities.