Trump/GOP will never actually outflank the Dems on the left. It won’t ever happen. But if the Dems don’t have bold, clear left policies Trump/GOP can use the media to seem like they are outflanking Dems on the left, which is all that really matters when it comes to elections.

Trump doesn’t care whether people who’ve lost their jobs live or die, but if he makes you think he does whole Dems appear inert...well, perception is reality.

The GOP will never be able to do right populism because it is absolutely too entrenched with capital. Trump ran as a right populist but governs largely as a normal Republican, which is of course what he is. He’s just stupider so he lets people like Jared run things.

Honestly, I could see the GOP becoming pro-choice before it became right populist. The power of the religious right is likely to fade, but the power of capital is not.

Let’s say the GOP went weakly pro-choice; it changes its platform to support choice in the first 24 weeks or something. Might it gain more voters than it loses? I think there’s a possibility.

Of course the party staff/volunteers at this point are probably still too religious to have this happen, but in 20 years? I dunno. It’s possible.

This thread kind of got away from me, so let’s just end with this: Trump is not running on single payer or increasing the social safety net and he’s not outflanking the Dems on the left. But the Dems are so bad at this it may seem like he is, and that matters.