Do the benefits you receive from Democrats holding power outweigh the increase in disposable income?
I think if you ask different people you'll receive different answers because it ultimately comes down to how you value those benefits. If not, why would any intelligent person ever vote for a Republican?
As I started off saying, the Republican party has recently started having some very poor direct effects on everybody's lives, so the answer to that question has become yes.
My original comment wasn't as a blue partisan, but rather a leave-me-alone libertarian. In 2016, yes "both sides" just channel popular frustration into corporatist policies. Abstract abortion vs abstract guns kayfabe, but really centralization and corporate welfare uber alles. I was the one telling my blue tribe friends why Trump was going to win, while they didn't want to hear it. I had never voted for a major party candidate in any national race (until 2020).
But in 2023? The inmates have solidly taken over the Republican asylum, in a way that the extremist wackos in the blue tribe have not (yet?). The only intelligent reason I can see to support the insanity is that you want to see the system run aground and crash. This isn't meant as an indictment - 20 or even 10 years ago I would have been right there with you.
If you want to explain another intelligent reason to vote Republican, I'm all ears. I'd love to return to my prior state of understanding the merit in both tribes' points of view. Just please don't base it on opposing cherry picked blue tribe insanity that hasn't actually captured the Democratic party, or things that are still basically symmetrical (eg Biden's student loan giveaway vs Trump's Covid giveaway).
I think if you ask different people you'll receive different answers because it ultimately comes down to how you value those benefits. If not, why would any intelligent person ever vote for a Republican?