because the dems don't have anything else to hang their hat on, electorally, while the GOP have a bunch of issues that they run on that don't have anything to do with material conditions (their entire platform tries to askew them, because they are trying to fuck people over economically)

basically, if we can imagine a scenario where, for whatever reason, a dem shuts down those programs (or those programs have to be shut down under a dem admin), the electoral consequences would be orders of magnitude worse for them than they would be for a culture war GOP admin.

i do think dems generally have benefited electorally from those programs, even as there are those who will always prioritize culture war issues. but i think the general expectation that dems do a good job taking care of material conditions and repubs can get more of a pass on that shit still holds.

this doesn't mean that GOP can completely fuck over voters economically and face no consequences, but it means that the standard for them is much different than the standard for dems.

this is why i think GOP has much more latitude (and they seem aware of this, based on their actions) in terms of materially depriving their own voters, as long as they can do showy culture war stuff. while dems have zero (or negative) leverage on that front.

the dems have no cultural cache, in the sense that they represent the status quo, and frame all their messaging on improving material conditions. therefore, the benchmark for them is not in big showy acts but in actually getting shit done that has immediate, material consequences.

the GOP caters to voters who have anxietes of about the "crisis of masculity," racial hierarchy, and imperial decline. all these are outgrowths of material conditions (precarious employment, cost of living, etc.). but voters seek redress for these cultural issues through symbolic exhibitions.

it's correct in the sense that voters expect dems to make their lives materially better. and there was a sense that biden did not fulfill that promise.

it's misleading because they didn't vote for trump because they thought he would fix the economy. they voted for him for culture war reasons.

everything is "performative" because we're in a social media panopticon where everything becomes free content for our tech overlords so they can be rich and we can get a strangely unfulfilling but addictive form of attention

wasn't the ultimate culprit of the financial meltdown the commercial paper market?

that one was driven more by PTSD, mass unemployment, and the burgeoning women's rights movement