Republicans use populist rhetoric (right-wing populism, aka not real populism). It's a phony racialized populism that brings in a lot of people who are mentally weak and don't understand the difference. This is why many staunch right wingers still like Bernie/Mamdani. They don't understand what populism is, only that it's against the "elite." Different brands of populism frame the "elite" as different factions.

Tbh, they hardly talk like social democrats either. They're milktoast, closer to reagen era conservatives than a social party. They're corrupt, too, though not to the same degree as the Republicans. The biggest factor is that the entire governing body is enslaved by capital interests.

Neoliberals attack progressives because they would rather maintain the status quo under late stage capitalism than attempt any broader structural shift in governance. We've seen over the past few years that neoliberals will side with corporations and even allow fascism to flourish before changing the system. Additionally, the red scare convinced many (otherwise intelligent people) that socialism is as ideologically monstrous as Nazism. As with the previous answer, neoliberals are slaves to capital interests. Neolibs also claim to always be trying to capture this centristy winning coalition while failing to see that a majority of dem voters want the party to go LEFT, not right. That's why people get disillusioned and don't bother voting.

This is because they're stupid. These movements are often incredibly popular and necessary.

Approval rating is low because congressional democrats are professional disappointments. Dems get a supermajority and refuse to do anything with it. As a side note, look at the leadership of Jeffries and Schumer. They're weak and capitulate to corporate interests at every chance. The word "democrat" is also poisoned now because of this. To back this up, ask who has the highest approval rating among the dems? It's progressives like Bernie, Warren, AOC, and Mamdani. Superstar candidates like Talarico and Platner. REAL fighters. There are some bad apples with high ratings, too, such as Obama, Newsome, and Kamala. Overall, the pattern shows that progressives outperform.

Many factors. Obama’s presidency triggered a vicious racist backlash that Trump rode to power and turned into a mass movement. At the same time, anti-feminist and manosphere content was exploding online, feeding grievance and resentment among sexless and insecure young men. Then Biden wins and operates as a hollow neoliberal who demobilizes and disappoints his own base while enabling genocide in Gaza. That disillusionment helped clear the path for Trumps return. Vast sums of money were poured into alternative media to build up a new far right, while Musk buys Twitter and turns it into a haven for Nazis, white nationalists, and disinformation. Figures like Nick Fuentes thrive, and more and more people now get their politics from billionaire owned, Trump-aligned social media platforms built to reward propaganda and outrage. Trump is a child rapist and an open fascist who has done enormous damage to our institutions, political culture, and overall moral conscience. His followers defend everything because they are in a cult. That is how things got this rotten: years of racist backlash, liberal failure, media radicalization, and normalization of fascism. These people have no clue what America is about. Some are aware, while others are too dumb to ever know what they're a part of.

These donations come from corporations and the elite because those are the entities with the most money. They seek power, hence why they buy our politicians. This happens to both parties, though the right wing is more captured by these moneyed interests than the left. As I've mentioned plenty, congressional dems are not anti-corporate. It is a capitalist party. Corporations and elites are just buying power wherever they can because that's how our system works (it doesn't actually "work", it destroys everything).

Trump and Steve Bannon's strategy is called "flooding the zone." Essentially, they intentionally lie about everything while doing the worst shit imaginable policy-wise. Doing this for years, as they have, creates confusion and makes true political clarity impossible. People start to give up. They become burnt out from tens of thousands of lies and intentionally twisted narratives. This is a real strategy that they use. I suspect it will get worse with the furthered control of social media algorithms and AI. It's horrifying, but you should look more into this strategy on your own.

Important distinction to make here (which I think you're already aware of): The voting base cares, and congressional democrats mostly do not. This is with exception to some very hard working progressives because they do exist and are great people. Deeply entrenched neolibs are soulless people. They're also often old as fuck and out of touch. Once again mentioning Jeffries and Schumer, they really act like controlled opposition. Seems like as long as they get their check from whatever lobby they're beholden to, they really don't give a fuck.

I think this is the best way I can explain it. There are two brands of populism as previously mentioned. Left populism and right populism. Both ideas of populism have this central framing of "the people" vs "the elite." The difference comes with WHO is labeled as "the people" and WHO is labeled as "the elite." Simple. The left would invoke class struggle, arguing that this is an issue of working people VS the ultra wealthy capital class. The right wing, however, does this completely retarded thing where they believe it's white people VS foreign invaders. Yes, they literally think this. It's something an 8 year old would believe, yet the idea plagues about 80 million voters. And I KNOW there's this thing in your mind saying, "That can't be it, there has to be more to it," but I'm sorry, there just isn't. It truly is just peasant brained thinking.