Himu, I love you buddy - but what does the Republican party offer you besides a slight respite from the particularly annoying grievance politics from the Democratic party? There's a lot to criticize with the left, especially their handling of sensitive issues regarding race and identity... But what do the Republicans do for you? Is it largely their stance on vax freedom?
Life experience. Living in a blue city in a red state is a complete opposite experience to living in a blue city in a blue state. It's easy to say you're a progressive until you've actually lived in a place that actually is.
You would think moving to NYC would make me more liberal/progressive than I was. I moved here as a progressive. In the end, I had to learn what it was like to live with and sit with the impact of my own policies. It was a massive wake up call.
Liberalism leads to:
1. Mediocrity - Privileged liberals hewed and hawed about the Pandemic and being scared to even go out even as they sat in their homes doing Zoom meetings, complaining about having to commute to the office well after vaccines were available. Whether my former roommates or whatever, I just noticed that the privilege of being able to work from home was an elite status that the elite couldn't recognize was privileged, nor could they appreciate as the rest of us - like myself and others I knew - had to sacrifice our bodies, our time, our safety to make ends meet in the middle of a pandemic. Through this experience I saw the laziness that was bred through virtual meetings, the privilege of work from home that it creates, and the mediocrity it brings. The rest of us operated on pure grit and a will to live despite all odds. Meanwhile the privileged are too scared to live because of social anxiety. It's really pathetic.
2. Weakness - Tied into the last point, and as we can see from Biden's lack of leadership, liberalism leads to weakness. Endless complaining, no solutions, just bleeding hearts. Their solution to most problems is to...do nothing. Or they do something but have no real end game plan so they protest the closing a nuclear plant to purport an increase in natural gas usage only to want to limit natural gas and increase gas energy prices a year later. They have no long term strategy. It is only ever feelings based finger pointing and victim blaming. There's almost never an idea of hope presented by the left. It's endless navel gazing and problems and doom and gloom. Going by the left, you can't do anything because you're black. You're a woman. You're this, you're that. Everything is tied to some victim complex of identity and I refuse to let my victories be defined by the color of my skin but the talent that I have and dreams I wish to achieve.
3. Excuse making - Black people can't get vote IDs despite the fact most black people live in the south and it's impossible to get anywhere in the south without a fucking drivers license and a car so most people already have IDs. Homeless are smoking crack on the subway and attacking people where children take the commute to school? Let's ignore it, they need a place to sleep! This all forms a trifecta of low expectations. They don't push anyone to do aspire to be their best, they merely look at society and victimize. Are these very real issues? In some cases, sure. But endless victimhood, what has it gotten us? Absolutely nothing. Hopes. Dreams. And a can do spirit. Maybe we will fail, but that's the tough America is made of.
More and more as I lived here I noticed that the real problems people face aren't met with respect but with money being thrown at the issue. It made me more fiscally conservative due to how much of my tax dollars go towards shit that don't solve anything.
Conservatives understand all of this. Although they have their own issues with liberty, Republicans have more respect towards it as a rule. I very much identify with the libertarians but the Libertarian Party isn't going to win a fight against the Democratic Party which I increasingly view as even worse for society than the Republicans especially through the lens of identity politics. I can talk to Republicans about things and they'll disagree on some things but understand where I'm coming from. I communicate my complex views on liberty and Democrats think I'm a bigot.
Over regulation, disregarding families and family values, no long term strategy, lack of strong leadership, privileged elitists, too fiscally liberal, reducing people to their identity/race/gender, the endless victim olympics, over 50 years of being a total clown show, their inability to get things done on a local/state/federal level, on and on and on. On most issues I realize I'm closer to the Republicans than the Democrats. A few years ago I flirted with conservatism and I wrongly put it in the box but I can admit I was wrong and I should have went all the way then and there. I've finally pushed the button.
At the end of the day we live in a two party system and the American people are keep choosing between the two because they can't govern. But for all of his faults, Americans did real well under Trump, especially our wallets and businesses and families.
Republicans offer me:
1. Hope. They actually believe the things they say. Conservatives just want upward mobility. That's what I want. Republicans actually believe if you work hard enough you'll make it. That's what I believe. I wouldn't have moved across the country if I didn't. In this, we are aligned. When I came here I found opportunity after opportunity after opportunity. Turns out opportunity knocks if you want it bad enough. No one stopped me because of my race. No one limited me but myself. By contrast, the left only judges, finger points, says this and that person thinks a certain way therefore they're bad and must be avoided.
2. A modern life. Republicans wisely understand that the conditions of our lives in here and now - today - is a rare circumstance in the circumference of human history and we should hold on to what we hold dear at all costs. Although there's much to improve, the liberal/progressive/communist idea of toppling what we have of unprecedented education, unprecedented peace, unprecedented opportunity for the human being to strive is bad. Often liberals are too concerned with transforming things without knowing what they're transforming them into. They are all heart, no brain.
3. Freedom. To own a gun. To own a business and run it how you like. To think what you want.
Throw in deregulation, school choice (as I plan for a family), more traditional values, lower taxes, better distribution of those taxes, less welfare programs that keep society mediocre, a can do spirit and it's pretty obvious which is better.
I think a better question is what the Democrats have to offer
me.
I haven't even gotten into Vaccine mandates, the endless Covid safety parade, the endless Covid virtue signaling, turning vaccines into a full fledged
identity, or the failures of the Biden administration. All of those things were the final domino enough to finally make me push the button. Republicans are by no means perfect but at this point, but they're closer to my ideals than the Democrats.
TLDR: Moving to NYC made me more conservative after challenging my progressive views. The only things I agree with Democrats on is healthcare reform (I get really good healthcare in NY and think it's worth paying a tax for) and a few other issues like decriminalization of drugs which funnily came from the more libertarian Colorado.
