No, the GOP and the Dems haven't actually swapped brains

So why the elaborate pantomime? The show serves a useful political purpose for Republicans, who face an obvious problem. For years, the GOP has been a loyal handmaiden to corporate interests, reliably delivering juicy tax breaks, subsidies and favors to their equally reliable corporate funders. Trump’s success with blue-collar MAGA voters has meant the party now feels it has to square its corporate toadyism with its new faux-populism. This is awkward, because a “working-class” GOP has no interest in actually doing much of anything for the working class. It is unlikely to support significant increases in the minimum wage, more job training, paid leave, greater access to health care, labor rights or the creation of more blue-collar jobs through a major infrastructure bill. Instead, when Republicans talk about the working class, they mean cultural warfare, racial anxiety and grievance against elites. In other words, more Dr. Seuss than economic uplift.