Isnt this literally what Trump ran on in 2016?
Be careful what you wish for. In this cursed timeline such an attempt would end in neo-Strasserism.
My own country is an example of that. The social democrats adopted a strategy of small but real welfare improvements to strategically selected deserving groups combined with mask-off racism, flag-waving and unconditional support for the violence of the state.
This has made them unstoppable. They went all in on doing politics as marketing, they surveyed voters, found out they wanted racism and welfare services (designed for the middle class, “fuck the poor” is very much a part of their politics) and gave them exactly that. And it worked, they have the highest share of the votes for decades.
The official right-wing is paralyzed, their previous winning strategy was to wrap unsavoury economic policies in racism and reactionary nastiness but now the social democrats have out-racisted them and they have to compete on their economic policies alone. The left is equally paralyzed, they have always been extremely cucked by the social democrats and felt compelled to support the lesser evil, especially since they share roots in the labour movement with the social democrats. The social democrats treats the left with enormous lack of respect but they throw them a teeny tiny treat once in a while. The fear of losing the little they actually get, combined with the fear of the right being worse makes them continue their support for the social democrats through everything they do.
Protecting the working class from the left by becoming more left. Oh. No. Please. Stop.
While a majority of registered Republicans favor various social program expansions and wealth redistribution, they just care more about culture war bullshit and are perfectly content with their life gradually getting worse, as long as they can “own” somebody like the lesbian woman with green hair who works as a cashier at a Starbucks.
If something was fundamentally different, I bet your opinion on it would be different!
