Rick Scott is in charge of Republican efforts to re-take the Senate. He is also pushing a plan that is bonkers. Scott wants to raise income taxes on low earners. In some ways, this is just standard GOP hating on the poor and working poor. But they never come out and directly do shit like this. It's just an astounding "own goal."
Trump at least made a slight head fake towards economic populism. It was almost entirely bullshit, as Trump's real "appeal" to White Working Class voters was cultural grievance, of which he remains an almost pure avatar. Nevertheless, Trump did attack the GOP for various iterations of Romney-style Rich Guy politics. (That this came from some trust fund baby like Trump remains bizarre.)
The Senate map favors Democrats as much as it ever does (which isn't much). If Democrats can win Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia, they will have 51 seats. If they can pull out wins in Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio and/or Ohio/Missouri, they will have the sort of margins that make Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema irrelevant.
The only way this happens if for the GOP to run mini-Trumps on a Romney platform. That seems to be happening. The only explanation I have is that Scott thinks that no one will actually believe that the GOP will raise their taxes. That's not a terrible bet but it's not a sure one.
GOP culture wars are linked to immiserating the poor. But if they alienate suburban voters and piss off WWC voters...who's left?
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