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Notes -
Doesn’t teacher pay by purchasing power come out in the wash with no real trend state to state? The high pay for California teachers gets eaten by the high cost of living out there. If I had to guess which state had the highest purchasing power for the median teacher, I’d probably pick iowa- cheap with unions.
The idea is powered by the sense that democrats will betray normal voters to push a cultural agenda. And red states do have a history of trying to raise teacher pay and the money getting redirected by district admins to whatever stupid crap is fashionable, usually with a conference in the Bahamas involved. But yes, there’s plenty of projection involved in the idea- even if there’s frequently a grain of truth to it. A majority of republicans support universal background checks but candidates who campaign on universal background checks try to ban ‘assault weapons’ and restrict concealed carry.
I mean, we're probably not going to agree, but in recent years, when it comes to things that actually have salience to the population, as opposed to a salience among cultural conservatives, it's the Republican party that are "betraying normal voters" via excessive abortion bans, as seen by those bans losing in any referendum, even in deep red states like Kentucky.
But, there's also a categorical difference on what a "normal American" is, since your "normal" seems to be opposed to any liberal cultural values, when that's close to 40% of the country at a minimum, up to a strong majority on some issues.
Like, the median American is basically a woman who went to college for a year or two to get a associate's in medical transcription who works at a doctor's office, is pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, mildly pro-transgender rights but doesn't really care, thinks the border is an issue but also broadly pro-DREAM Act, wants more gun control but doesn't want all guns banned, thinks the cops have issues but we shouldn't defund them, and so forth, and all of that would likely be considered "pushing a cultural agenda on normal American's" to conservatives.
I’m pretty sure that the median voter is a white fifty something homeowner with no college degree who opposes partial birth abortions but supports first trimester ones, thinks there’s only two genders but that being dicks to people who are confused about it is dumb, supports gay marriage but no further, and wants universal background checks but has confused ideas on other gun policy ideas, thinks immigration is too high and identifies as anti-woke, but thinks there’s problem cops- and also that most of them are good ones who should get more societal respect.
There’s a progressive conceit that because young women who feel unhappy with their lot in life lean progressive, everyone else does too.
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