>>110291278The important thing to know about American politics is that there are only 2 political parties, and the very idea of a third party has been beaten out of us.
This means that, because there are only two choice, any topic that has disagreement on it that gets supported or opposed by one party automatically fosters the opposite opinion in the other party. If the Democrats say A, the Republics automatically become the home of everyone who prefers B unless they explicitly say 'we also choose A'.
Typically, this goes the opposite direction. In order to maintain power the republican party picked a firm stance on every issue that they considered to be one that would drive people to the polls. Religion, immigration, abortion, taxes, etc. Their true foundation is supporting the wealthy and getting the poor to get on board for it, and they get those poor on board for it by beating the drum on things that appeal to uneducated people with a poor grasp of politics. "Immigrants are taking your jobs, and only we will stop them", that sort of thing. It doesn't matter if its true, it only matters if it tickles the feelings of the masses.
The democrats are more socially progressive, but largely because the republicans already staked their claim and stuck to their guns on being socially conservative. But because of how the two party system works, remember if one party picks A, the other party gets stuck with B. The republicans typically take the initiative on this, and the end result is that in the two party 'system', the Democrats are not really a party:
The Republicans are a very tightly focused machine of shortsighted greed who will say and do anything to win, and the Democrats are the disorganized *everyone else* category that is lumped up under one umbrella as their opposition. So the Republicans are assholes, and the Democrats are frequently incompetent because they don't agree on what they want because they are really a bunch of different agendas.