I don't think the problem has been too much focus on tax policy as much as it has been rhetorical sloppiness and poor advocacy skills. We don't know what to fight over and how to fight on social issues. We're very good at making ourselves look stupid and assholic, and we concede or simply don't notice a lot of rhetorical points.
For example, we relied a lot on the "yuck factor" and the general perception that homosexuality was gross to keep the sexual agenda at bay. When the big thing people saw or heard about with gays was orgies at bathhouses and parades with almost naked dudes whipping each other, that was enough. However, the strategy toward normalisation changed. Gays were portrayed basically as an regular people and didn't seem "gross." That weakened the yuck factor. Then political discourse shifted to talking about homosexuality as an identity rather than a course of conduct, which made it easier to frame anyone opposed to the agenda as "discriminatory" and therefore bad and hateful. Most social conservatives never saw that coming and didn't know how to deal with it. In fact, they largely just glossed over it. That failure cost us more than anything, and they're now trying it on the trans crap.
-
Agree x 1
Last edited: Dec 19, 2022