Let's strawman

People can be manipulated. 

I keep seeing identity politics being raised as a red herring to blame for right wing gains worldwide but especially in the US. Why not blame DEI hiring and transgender people as distractions instead of addressing the core problems. 

At 1% of the population transgender people harm no one but, among other groups, they are low hanging fruit which makes us an easy target for cultural outrage. 

The average Joe voter knows something is wrong but can be manipulated. This is how Republicans began to win the southern states by picking up frustrated Dixiecrats not happy with lyndon Johnson giving black people civil rights they so rightfully deserved. 

Cultural issues can be red meat when you want to distract from your problems and it's how we got the "Woke agenda" moral panic people like Jordan Peterson love to trumpet as distraction.

As people fall behind economically, they need someone to blame and the Democrats weren't much help either when they went truly corporate in the early 90's and encouraged moving business offshore through globalization efforts. Now Americans could also buy cheap shit from China to feed their insatiable rampant consumerism.

All of those people who lost their livelihood to low cost countries are now the people most susceptible to strawman messaging which increases their hatred of a false enemy while ignoring their pain.