{"text":[[{"start":5.68,"text":"Frank Luntz, the conservative political strategist known for his savvy word-smithing (he turned “estate tax” into “death tax” and “global warming” into “climate change”) recently conducted a survey about which political words resonate with Americans right now. “Respect” was far and away the winner. Primary election results are already showing that the candidates who can deliver voters a feeling of being heard, understood and respected — regardless of their politics or policies — are the most likely to win this year’s midterms."}],[{"start":36.12,"text":"Consider the recent Senate primary race in Michigan, where a deep-pocketed establishment Democrat, Haley Stevens, was upset by a democratic socialist, Abdul El-Sayed, who ran on a message of economic populism. The super-tight win last week for moderate Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate David Crowley seemed to show the opposite trend. But in fact, voters were wooed not so much by these candidates’ specific policies as the idea that they could be trusted. They made people feel seen and understood. That trust, more than any political platform, is the foundation for what Luntz calls “the politics of respect”, which he believes will dominate this election cycle."}],[{"start":75.44,"text":"When it comes to the politics of respect, it’s not about issues, it’s about values. Consider the many formerly Democratic union voters who helped elect Donald Trump in 2016 and 2024. “These voters may not have really liked the GOP, but they certainly felt the Democrats didn’t like them,” says Luntz."}],[{"start":92.86,"text":"True enough. I grew up in a rural area in a part of Indiana that historically had been labour left but swung over 70 per cent Trump in both of those elections. I remember thinking that none of the very intelligent people I watched the first presidential debate with on Manhattan’s Upper West Side ever really got the fact that Trump trounced Hillary Clinton simply by pointing out her pro-Nafta stance to a bunch of union factory workers who felt left behind. To them, a Democrat that claimed to care about working people while sending jobs to Mexico or China was just a hypocrite. Someone who can’t be trusted. And without trust, there can be no respect."}],[{"start":129.16,"text":"Culture wars are all about respect too. America is a God-fearing nation. Democrats forgot that over the past few decades to their peril. Trump won 81 per cent of white evangelicals, 58 per cent of white non-evangelical Protestants and most Catholics in 2024."}],[{"start":148.04,"text":"While Republicans certainly have no monopoly on morality, they’ve been able to speak to rural communities in a more thoughtful way than urban liberals typically have. “There’s a sense that people on the coast don’t understand our values, which include faith,” Todd Huston, the Speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives, told me last week. “There’s a perceived lack of respect for the idea that maybe some people want to live differently than those in larger cities, maybe in a simpler way.”"}],[{"start":174.54,"text":"But Democrats now understand that religion can be fundamental to the politics of respect. Progressive Iowa state senator Sarah Trone Garriott is trying to close the “God gap” with her Republican competitor Zach Nunn in an Iowa race for his House seat. As she recently put it: “Politics is just about how we live together, and so is faith. So, of course faith should speak to our politics.”"}],[{"start":197.36,"text":"Will voters buy it from a progressive? Luntz says the messenger matters a lot when voters consider such sentiments. Garriott is the real deal — a Lutheran minister who attended Harvard Divinity School. Texas state representative James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for US Senate and Presbyterian seminarian, has also given some terrific interviews connecting his Christian faith to issues of class, inequality and affordability in America. But he’s also said in the past that God is “non-binary”, which doesn’t go over quite as well in red states. Whether Talarico will be viewed as authentic or not remains to be seen."}],[{"start":234.36,"text":"One thing is clear: many Republicans, starting with Trump, are bungling the politics of respect. Consider the president’s recent comments about affordability. This is the number one issue for American voters but Trump called it a “hoax” and a “con job” created by Democrats. Perhaps that’s why his support among blue-collar whites is weakening. Trump is also telling Americans that data centres won’t take their jobs, even as AI anxiety reaches a fever pitch. Meanwhile, vice-president JD Vance has taken to fat-shaming critics as he hawks a new book on his journey from evangelical Christianity to Catholicism. Referring to a columnist who has previously criticised his position on the wildly unpopular Iran war, he posted on social media, “it’s quite obvious the man has never missed a burrito”. What Would Jesus Do? Not this, JD, especially not in a country where 72 per cent of people are either overweight or obese."}],[{"start":291.2,"text":"Luntz believes that if Republicans continue in this way, we could see a reversal of the 2016 swing towards Trump and Maga. “I’m watching Michigan and Ohio intensely,” he says. These are bellwether states where the economy isn’t awful but also isn’t great, and where a lot of people work with their hands. He has seen private polling data showing union members there and elsewhere moving away from Trump and Trump-backed candidates."}],[{"start":315.92,"text":"Could anything flip the script? “The president could end the war in Iran,” Luntz says. What if he can’t? Then Trump may not be able to hold the respect of even his base."}],[{"start":328.24,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1787020763_1325.mp3"}