Great piece. Have an observation/question about tribalism. You write:”In fact, a 2017 study by Stanford professor Shanto Iyengar found that in America (and a few other democracies), bonds based on partisan affiliation have surpassed those based on race, religion, language and ethnicity. (You can take a quiz to see whether this is true for you, here.) As this Stanford Report notes, partisan group identity also allows for all of the worst parts of tribal behavior to come out:
My observation is that these affiliations cited above don’t include the tribalism around sports. This has been a source of extreme tribalism and boorish behavior forever, it seems. The sports “arena” provides both the norms of rules, regulations, and “sportsmanship. But they also tolerate, cultivate, reward, and hence normalize everything from the fanatical WWE fans, to the British soccer hooliganism, to hockey fans who attend for the fights, and so on ad infinitum.
My point is that Trump’s schtick is very WWE. In a sense, one could argue that his populist appeal is based on bringing the norms of the WWE into politics. The WEE is all about the cathartic opportunities of being extremely tribal around transparently fantastical characters and story lines. Isn’t this what MAGA is all about?
Wow. I finally took the quiz. My overwhelming identifier is religion - rather, lack of. This is rational. Lack of superstition despite all the cultural push to believe, says to me that the person is intelligent and thoughtful, and I would like to think I identify with that. The survey is flawed in that it lumps atheism with religion, which is as dumb as saying baldness is a hair style. Partisanship scored very low for me. Anyone else in my tribe?
I am with Abbie. Also, for me, choosing the Democrat over the Republican is mostly just a rejection of people who are muddleheaded and lack empathy. It has little to do with politics.
Abbie, interesting insights from your quiz results, I must say. It makes sense that identifying with a lack of superstition feels rational and thoughtful.
The way the survey lumps atheism with religion does seem off—it’s like comparing apples and oranges. Your low score in partisanship shows how different our primary identifiers can be.
I’m sure there are others who share your perspective on rationality and skepticism.
Jon, interesting observation! Sports tribalism definitely shows how intense group loyalty can be, often overriding common decency.
Your comparison of Trump’s populist appeal to WWE norms is absolute spot on. Both thrive on creating larger-than-life characters and stirring strong, emotional responses.
It’s a compelling lens to view political tribalism through—one that combines spectacle and deep-seated loyalty. Thanks for sharing this unique perspective, Jon.
At the risk of being ridiculously simplistic, I think the common thread is resentment, and a choice, whether realized or not, to have a cynical, dark vision of life, rather than an optimistic, generous vision of life, and the dark side is gaining...all the old sayings, glass half full or half empty, etc., have real meaning and implications; we need The Carter Family's "Keep on the Sunny Side of Life" back into the American spirit.
Not simplistic at all. I had not included it in the interest of keeping this post at a reasonable length (and hope to elaborate on these in a future post), but Hacker & Pierson actually refer to the three "R's" when it comes to Republican tactics of division: Resentment, Racialization, and Rigging. I will discuss with him at our talk on Tuesday!
Hi Asha. I look forward to reading your thoughts on the 3 Rs of Republican tactics. I recently met a person from Ireland who used the term “collective begrudgery” in describing certain behaviors. Google or Chat GPT it. It’s a thing. In the NW we might call it crab potting. But either way it describes behavior towards someone who is perceived to have more of something than the rest of us do. I think it’s more descriptive than mere resentment and sounds a bit like something from a Harry Potter movie😎
Thank you for some eye-popping graphics. The “constitutional hardball” technique appeals to narcissists who prefer negative attention to no attention and who want people to talk about them at all costs -- I call it the "Roger Stone Syndrome".
Thanks for this post. The graphics are great and help to explain what is really happening and what has already happened to lead us to this disturbing place we find ourselves in. I just returned from a trip to Independence Hall in Philadelphia and said a prayer for our democracy. I often wonder what our Founders would do in this situation.
What an amazingly informative piece, Asha. I have to say that I've been concerned throughout the current administration about the lack of response thus far, to the widespread non-stop extremism that's been targeting the upcoming 2024 elections all along - an election which will likely be the most important in modern day American history. I'm wondering whether enough of our Democratic legislators have prepared themselves with the information necessary to counter the rhetoric and appeal to working class voters. And that they're all aware that it can't be just the President and VP, but every Democrat must be on the campaign trail for democracy now. After all, it truly is "Trumpism" that we're up against - not just "trump."
"Everything we've done has made your life worse, which is why you need to vote for us otherwise Trump and Republicans will be totally bad and stuff."
Here's the thing, if you want to appeal to working-class and middle-class voters, you need to have policies that actually give them positive results. When everything in life is far more expensive than it was four years ago, and wages aren't even beginning to keep up with the real inflation numbers, trying to gaslight voters into believing you're trying to help them is a tough sell.
The Biden admin fights harder for mentally ill trans people, illegal immigrants, Israelis, and Ukrainians than it does for Americans. People see this, you know.
I'm not sure why I'm choosing to respond to such a distorted viewpoint but I'll take my one shot:
Regarding your comments on policies that produce "positive results," consider that in our two-party system of government, results can often be restrained simply by a single party's refusal to consider such policies - for strictly political reasons, in some cases. For example: the current Border Security legislation - a breakthrough proposal to address such an important issue - but it's being stalled for the sole purpose of politicizing that issue against the current administration. (And yes, I'm unmistakably talking about the Trump-Republican Party.) But this is just the latest in a long list of social and economic policies that could bring about positive change for working class Americans, or relief in some instances, but for the misguided following of leadership that has zero interest in working class/middle class relief from overbearing, price gouging corporate America - whom the Republican Party is far more interested in appeasing. Of course, I'm sure you already know all this - that while everyday Americans' costs for goods and services are higher than ever, corporate America is recording record breaking profits, along with unheard of tax breaks!
So, unless you are of the wealthy corporate or billionaire stature, I'm stumped as to how you'd choose to follow an ideology that thwarts, then feeds off of the vast majority of Americans. We could do ourselves a great service to move as far away as possible from the divisive, dysfunction of the former Republican Party, now under siege by Donald Trump.
Distorted would be thinking that the border bill you’re speaking of represented what the main body of Republicans wanted. It was negotiated by about 4 GOP senators, including McConnell, without sharing the details with the rest of the caucus.
It was never the bill Republicans wanted. It was the bill McConnell was willing to push so he could get favors on some other legislation. But NyT, WaPo, NBC, etc. all insisted on using the exact same language characterizing it as a bill that gave Republicans almost everything they wanted, when that is an extremely distorted view requiring the focus to narrow to about 4 Republicans in order for it to be accurate.
Want to know why? Because all it did was facilitate the current open borders policies, with the cattle gates never actually closing until we’d exceeded a certain rather high daily/weekly number. It did nothing to end this farcical policy where we let people file an asylum application and release them into the interior with a court date 10+ years in the future.
Regarding policies that favor the working-class, middle-class, etc., I look at policy results, rather than the policy promises announced when they sign yet another bill into law.
Blue states are harder on the working-class and middle-class because the cost of living is higher than the quality of life generated by all those whimsical government programs and extra regulations that tend to negatively impact small businesses and make buying a house unaffordable.
Then we take it to the federal level and what do we see? More government programs the help the rich, the poor, and no one in between…..except government employees, naturally.
Democrats have great messaging about their ideology and aspirations, but they actually suck at governing. If I’m going to get incompetent government no matter what, then I’m choosing fewer regulations and lower taxes.
I was hoping someone would respond with a more sensible response to this author who sounds like a college student trying to impress her liberal professors. Is it a surprise that a majority of adults going thru college lean to the left?
"The HERI approach that asks how faculty members self-identify across the political spectrum gives us a better sense of the ideological leanings among the professoriate. It powerfully shows that the number of faculty on the right is far outweighed by those who identify as moderate or on the left. In 1989-1990, when HERI first fielded this survey, 42% of faculty identified as being on the left, 40% were moderate, and another 18% were on the right. This is not a normal curve – it is a clear lean to the left.
Almost three decades later in 2016-2017, HERI found that 60% of the faculty identified as either far left or liberal compared to just 12% being conservative or far right. In 1989, the liberal: conservative ratio of faculty was 2.3. So in less than 30 years the ratio of liberal identifying faculty to conservative faculty had more than doubled to 5."
If you want to delude yourself and pretend that the proposal was done in some shadow of secrecy, or that no one else was entitled to participate in those discussions, then you're far more distorted than I had imagined. That falsehood would be somewhat believable if their input had been considered - but the fact that they weren't offering any (not then, not now) should make even you aware that their disapproval has nothing to do with the content of the border bill, but everything to do with trump wanting to campaign on the border issue, and their cowardly efforts to allow the border to go unaddressed - until trump says, "boo!"
The vast majority of Republican legislators are such cowards in fear of displeasing trump that they've completely forgotten that it's YOU & I that they're supposed to be representing, not a criminally crazed, wannabe mob boss that so many would empower to continue dissolving our international alliances & embarrassing the US on the world stage..., not to mention his total disrespect for the rule of law.
I took the quiz and it came out that I am more interested in education and religion for identity. That’s probably to be expected. What are two of the biggest things in my life? Church life and teaching at the community college.
When I lost my city council race back in 2022 I was told I was seemingly too far left of the MAGA base. I was apparently more like a European politician than a rabid MAGA politico. Who would vote for a Republican running for city council voting promising public works about fixing a city’s horrible sidewalks, streets, and housing stock? Apparently mostly Democrats as the ward’s Republicans didn’t show up to vote and I still got 25% of the vote. I took it as a sign and switched my party affiliation to where I probably should have been in the first place.
"as the system is designed right now, there’s no real downside for the democratic backsliding we are witnessing — at least for the party that is causing it. And that’s why the polls suggest that Trump may take the White House again this December."
What you miss is that the balance of power is still with the Republicans since they control the House and the SCOTUS. There is very little that the Democrats could do that couldn't be negated by the Republicans, and they are using that to show that the nation should put the GOP "back in power" to complete their destruction of democratic government. Note that when a few Republicans extracted the most destructive immigration policy and border enforcement bill from the Democrats to fund Ukraine and fight off Russia, Trump told 'em to dump the bill so the GOP and he could run on "border security" for the election.
There is no immediate upside for our country, and I worry dearly about my children and especially my grandchildren and their kids. This cannot be turned around before a cataclysmic event like WWII.
The border bill that would have legalized illegal immigration went down in flames when Republicans actually read it and realized McConnell was trying to sell them a Democrat-flavored lemon.
The Biden admin caused the crisis at the border by willfully and purposefully dismantling the Remain in Mexico policy and other agreements with central American nations and Venezuela to process asylum applications there.
Please stop claiming the Biden admin or congressional Democrats are serious about border security when they've done everything possible to increase illegal immigration short of disbanding the border patrol.
Wake up and stop allowing people who hate our Representative Republic. Vote for Donald J. Trump. He's the only one strong enough to stand up to the deep corruption that runs through both parties. #Trump2024
Barb McQuade recommended this article, and I agree that Asha hits the mark overall. LET THEM EAT TWEETS rocks as an eye-opener that goes beyond T. Franks earlier focusing argument. I resist, however, the use of “tribal” as a descriptor of affinity that ties MAGA supporters together. In the U.S. it’s “party ID” that exerts a powerful kind of identification. Most of us acquire it early. The Rs had been “cracking up” (see Samuel Popkin’s book) before Trump cherry-picked tariffs (protectionism), nativism, and anti-government postures. He especially aimed to attack social policies. Trump constructed his platform and then used demagoguery to recruit his base.
But Suzanne, don’t you feel that the right have been planning their takeover long before he came down the staircase. He is just a craven puppet with no moral sense whatsoever. They latched on to him because he had name recognition and a pop culture following. Leonard Leo et al. are the continuing danger.
I’m not sure Katharine, on how organized the far right white nationalists were before Trump declared. But the big money funders and their media machine provided a vehicle. I’m inclined to believe Michael Cohen’s insistence that Trump ran to get exposure, “as a publicity stunt.” He expected HRC to win. He was ready to lead the opposition to her election. We’d have seen his defiance we now know well much earlier. Trump tweaked the Tea Party coalition. Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway organized them but not until the fall of 2016.
Thanks for the graphics. And a special thanks for pointing to Reagan’s campaign and election as the turning point. Many if not most Americans are frustrated by how inflation is eating up every paycheck, little knowing it was Reagan who started the steady transfer of wealth away from their income streams and into the pockets of the few. Had that not occurred and been increased by subsequent R administrations and Congresses, current inflation would be a footnote on page 20 instead daily headlines.
Asha is being simplistic and tribal. She argues that the Democrats were less tribal-less vicious-less misidentifying in their identity politicking- labeling- name calling... when Democrats were usually just less blunt, less blatant and less vulgar than Republicans. Actually, Democrats were more condescending more sophisticated in their disingenuity. Democrats' mistruths were so clever that they fooled themselves. They were certain they could win with sophisticated disingenuity. Democrats misidentified (publicly) the cause of inequality with Bill Clinton and Obama continuing the neoliberal policies that ensured gross inequality. Obama talked of HOPE, got folks hopes up high and let them down by supporting the Bush tax cuts by governing very much like both Bush presidents. That’s why we got Trump the talented marketeer with the skills to perfectly tap into the resentments of that “basket of deplorables”.
The Democratic tribe chose a leader in 2016 that called Republicans a “basketful of terribles” tapping into Democratic tribal resentments rather than going with Bernie who was resonating with both the Democratic Tribe and the Republican. Bernie was beating Hillary in the polls against Trump. Both Democrats and Republicans knew and know now that the system is rigged. Both tribes AGREED that the system was rigged but the corporate Democrats rejected the man who offered the very economic policies that would begin to address the economic rigging that caused such grotesque inequality. Democrats went with a leader who called Republicans a “basket of deplorables”, a leader who deepened the divide. We had a sane man saying that the system was rigged for inequality in Bernie, and he offered realistic policies to unrig it. And we had Trump, a fascistic man saying "rigged" only to tap into tribal resentments. Biden is not particularly inspiring to either tribe. That “basket of deplorables” may have us with Trump again. Democrats waited too long to run with economic policies that would ensure greater equality. The table is set for authoritarianism. America will get worse before it gets better, before it moves beyond extreme inequality, extreme tribalism and finds some solidarity in going after neoliberal policies that found monopolies-oligopolies cornering all the major sectors of the market, a concentration of wealth, a corporatism that will find corporations mostly untouched by Biden and taxed even less under Trump. Either way with Trump or Biden the 1%, the oligarchy is going to do just fine, thanks.
I think your comment is way over the heads of most of the author's readers.
Biden is an authoritarian corporatist...just like Hillary was. Somehow he was positioned as America's grandpa despite there being loads of video and text evidence that should have led any reasonable person to conclude that he's a moron for sale to the highest bidder and has been since, at a minimum, the early 90s.
Trump is terrible. We all know that. But he's a reaction to an underlying rot in our governmental system. Once he's out of the picture, that rot will still be there.
As you say, we're heading towards more authoritarianism because that's what will be required for the oligarchs to maintain their current system where they turn us all upside down and shake us till our pockets are empty while they hoover up every last bit of wealth.
Exactly, it's scarey to think that Asha might be thought of as a well educated American...the state of education in America is the problem. How American attend to the world is frightening.
Puddin' is trying to jail his political opponent. He's having his fbi follow and harrass parents who speak at school board meetings! It's endless. The amount of misery and absolute harm this administration has wrought. Please climb down from your ivory tower. We're circling the drain as a country and we want the honesty, freedom, and prosperity that we had during Trumps last 4 years. We need a leader who loves the Constitution and We the People.
I was struck by your comment that there are "kooks and extremists and crazies 'on both sides'.” I pay attention to politics and am generally put off by most politicians, but I honestly can't identify the Democrat equivalent of "empty G", Boebert, Gaetz, et al. Would you mind sharing who you are talking about here? No offense, but frankly this feels like a bit of gratuitous both-sidesism.
I didn’t say there was a “Democrat equivalent.” I said there are crazies/extremists on either side of the L-R political spectrum. Jill Stein, RFK, etc. They remain on the fringes because the *center of gravity* of the Democratic Party remains moderate and closer to the center and these people cannot get traction in it. I.e., these folks are unable to hijack a major political party. That is the difference.
Thank you for your reply. Of course if you are generalizing about the whole L-R spectrum then, yes, I agree with you. I guess I was confused because for the most part you seemed to be talking about (and my impression of the charts was that they only related to) the two political parties.
If you aren't aware of Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and other lunatic members of the progressive caucus, I don't believe you're actually serious about looking at the problem children among the federally elected Democrats.
If you don’t think that group of people are radicals pushing insane policies, then you are probably not anywhere near as close to the semi-rational middle as you may believe.
The defining characteristic of the members of the squad are that they’re products of their congressional districts, and most of them are unelectable outside their districts.
Great piece. Have an observation/question about tribalism. You write:”In fact, a 2017 study by Stanford professor Shanto Iyengar found that in America (and a few other democracies), bonds based on partisan affiliation have surpassed those based on race, religion, language and ethnicity. (You can take a quiz to see whether this is true for you, here.) As this Stanford Report notes, partisan group identity also allows for all of the worst parts of tribal behavior to come out:
My observation is that these affiliations cited above don’t include the tribalism around sports. This has been a source of extreme tribalism and boorish behavior forever, it seems. The sports “arena” provides both the norms of rules, regulations, and “sportsmanship. But they also tolerate, cultivate, reward, and hence normalize everything from the fanatical WWE fans, to the British soccer hooliganism, to hockey fans who attend for the fights, and so on ad infinitum.
My point is that Trump’s schtick is very WWE. In a sense, one could argue that his populist appeal is based on bringing the norms of the WWE into politics. The WEE is all about the cathartic opportunities of being extremely tribal around transparently fantastical characters and story lines. Isn’t this what MAGA is all about?
Wow. I finally took the quiz. My overwhelming identifier is religion - rather, lack of. This is rational. Lack of superstition despite all the cultural push to believe, says to me that the person is intelligent and thoughtful, and I would like to think I identify with that. The survey is flawed in that it lumps atheism with religion, which is as dumb as saying baldness is a hair style. Partisanship scored very low for me. Anyone else in my tribe?
I am with Abbie. Also, for me, choosing the Democrat over the Republican is mostly just a rejection of people who are muddleheaded and lack empathy. It has little to do with politics.
Abbie, interesting insights from your quiz results, I must say. It makes sense that identifying with a lack of superstition feels rational and thoughtful.
The way the survey lumps atheism with religion does seem off—it’s like comparing apples and oranges. Your low score in partisanship shows how different our primary identifiers can be.
I’m sure there are others who share your perspective on rationality and skepticism.
Jon, interesting observation! Sports tribalism definitely shows how intense group loyalty can be, often overriding common decency.
Your comparison of Trump’s populist appeal to WWE norms is absolute spot on. Both thrive on creating larger-than-life characters and stirring strong, emotional responses.
It’s a compelling lens to view political tribalism through—one that combines spectacle and deep-seated loyalty. Thanks for sharing this unique perspective, Jon.
At the risk of being ridiculously simplistic, I think the common thread is resentment, and a choice, whether realized or not, to have a cynical, dark vision of life, rather than an optimistic, generous vision of life, and the dark side is gaining...all the old sayings, glass half full or half empty, etc., have real meaning and implications; we need The Carter Family's "Keep on the Sunny Side of Life" back into the American spirit.
Not simplistic at all. I had not included it in the interest of keeping this post at a reasonable length (and hope to elaborate on these in a future post), but Hacker & Pierson actually refer to the three "R's" when it comes to Republican tactics of division: Resentment, Racialization, and Rigging. I will discuss with him at our talk on Tuesday!
Hi Asha. I look forward to reading your thoughts on the 3 Rs of Republican tactics. I recently met a person from Ireland who used the term “collective begrudgery” in describing certain behaviors. Google or Chat GPT it. It’s a thing. In the NW we might call it crab potting. But either way it describes behavior towards someone who is perceived to have more of something than the rest of us do. I think it’s more descriptive than mere resentment and sounds a bit like something from a Harry Potter movie😎
Thank you for some eye-popping graphics. The “constitutional hardball” technique appeals to narcissists who prefer negative attention to no attention and who want people to talk about them at all costs -- I call it the "Roger Stone Syndrome".
One of the best, clearest, and concise explanations of how we have arrived at the present moment that I have read. Thank you!
Thanks for this post. The graphics are great and help to explain what is really happening and what has already happened to lead us to this disturbing place we find ourselves in. I just returned from a trip to Independence Hall in Philadelphia and said a prayer for our democracy. I often wonder what our Founders would do in this situation.
1. Great piece.
2. What's the Matter with Kansas? Is by Thomas Frank, not Arthur Frank.
Ack! Thank you will correct
What an amazingly informative piece, Asha. I have to say that I've been concerned throughout the current administration about the lack of response thus far, to the widespread non-stop extremism that's been targeting the upcoming 2024 elections all along - an election which will likely be the most important in modern day American history. I'm wondering whether enough of our Democratic legislators have prepared themselves with the information necessary to counter the rhetoric and appeal to working class voters. And that they're all aware that it can't be just the President and VP, but every Democrat must be on the campaign trail for democracy now. After all, it truly is "Trumpism" that we're up against - not just "trump."
"Everything we've done has made your life worse, which is why you need to vote for us otherwise Trump and Republicans will be totally bad and stuff."
Here's the thing, if you want to appeal to working-class and middle-class voters, you need to have policies that actually give them positive results. When everything in life is far more expensive than it was four years ago, and wages aren't even beginning to keep up with the real inflation numbers, trying to gaslight voters into believing you're trying to help them is a tough sell.
The Biden admin fights harder for mentally ill trans people, illegal immigrants, Israelis, and Ukrainians than it does for Americans. People see this, you know.
I'm not sure why I'm choosing to respond to such a distorted viewpoint but I'll take my one shot:
Regarding your comments on policies that produce "positive results," consider that in our two-party system of government, results can often be restrained simply by a single party's refusal to consider such policies - for strictly political reasons, in some cases. For example: the current Border Security legislation - a breakthrough proposal to address such an important issue - but it's being stalled for the sole purpose of politicizing that issue against the current administration. (And yes, I'm unmistakably talking about the Trump-Republican Party.) But this is just the latest in a long list of social and economic policies that could bring about positive change for working class Americans, or relief in some instances, but for the misguided following of leadership that has zero interest in working class/middle class relief from overbearing, price gouging corporate America - whom the Republican Party is far more interested in appeasing. Of course, I'm sure you already know all this - that while everyday Americans' costs for goods and services are higher than ever, corporate America is recording record breaking profits, along with unheard of tax breaks!
So, unless you are of the wealthy corporate or billionaire stature, I'm stumped as to how you'd choose to follow an ideology that thwarts, then feeds off of the vast majority of Americans. We could do ourselves a great service to move as far away as possible from the divisive, dysfunction of the former Republican Party, now under siege by Donald Trump.
Distorted would be thinking that the border bill you’re speaking of represented what the main body of Republicans wanted. It was negotiated by about 4 GOP senators, including McConnell, without sharing the details with the rest of the caucus.
It was never the bill Republicans wanted. It was the bill McConnell was willing to push so he could get favors on some other legislation. But NyT, WaPo, NBC, etc. all insisted on using the exact same language characterizing it as a bill that gave Republicans almost everything they wanted, when that is an extremely distorted view requiring the focus to narrow to about 4 Republicans in order for it to be accurate.
Want to know why? Because all it did was facilitate the current open borders policies, with the cattle gates never actually closing until we’d exceeded a certain rather high daily/weekly number. It did nothing to end this farcical policy where we let people file an asylum application and release them into the interior with a court date 10+ years in the future.
Regarding policies that favor the working-class, middle-class, etc., I look at policy results, rather than the policy promises announced when they sign yet another bill into law.
Blue states are harder on the working-class and middle-class because the cost of living is higher than the quality of life generated by all those whimsical government programs and extra regulations that tend to negatively impact small businesses and make buying a house unaffordable.
Then we take it to the federal level and what do we see? More government programs the help the rich, the poor, and no one in between…..except government employees, naturally.
Democrats have great messaging about their ideology and aspirations, but they actually suck at governing. If I’m going to get incompetent government no matter what, then I’m choosing fewer regulations and lower taxes.
I was hoping someone would respond with a more sensible response to this author who sounds like a college student trying to impress her liberal professors. Is it a surprise that a majority of adults going thru college lean to the left?
"The HERI approach that asks how faculty members self-identify across the political spectrum gives us a better sense of the ideological leanings among the professoriate. It powerfully shows that the number of faculty on the right is far outweighed by those who identify as moderate or on the left. In 1989-1990, when HERI first fielded this survey, 42% of faculty identified as being on the left, 40% were moderate, and another 18% were on the right. This is not a normal curve – it is a clear lean to the left.
Almost three decades later in 2016-2017, HERI found that 60% of the faculty identified as either far left or liberal compared to just 12% being conservative or far right. In 1989, the liberal: conservative ratio of faculty was 2.3. So in less than 30 years the ratio of liberal identifying faculty to conservative faculty had more than doubled to 5."
Taken from:
https://www.aei.org/articles/are-colleges-and-universities-too-liberal-what-the-research-says-about-the-political-composition-of-campuses-and-campus-climate/
Check out the article.
Oh,PLEASE!!
If you want to delude yourself and pretend that the proposal was done in some shadow of secrecy, or that no one else was entitled to participate in those discussions, then you're far more distorted than I had imagined. That falsehood would be somewhat believable if their input had been considered - but the fact that they weren't offering any (not then, not now) should make even you aware that their disapproval has nothing to do with the content of the border bill, but everything to do with trump wanting to campaign on the border issue, and their cowardly efforts to allow the border to go unaddressed - until trump says, "boo!"
The vast majority of Republican legislators are such cowards in fear of displeasing trump that they've completely forgotten that it's YOU & I that they're supposed to be representing, not a criminally crazed, wannabe mob boss that so many would empower to continue dissolving our international alliances & embarrassing the US on the world stage..., not to mention his total disrespect for the rule of law.
I took the quiz and it came out that I am more interested in education and religion for identity. That’s probably to be expected. What are two of the biggest things in my life? Church life and teaching at the community college.
When I lost my city council race back in 2022 I was told I was seemingly too far left of the MAGA base. I was apparently more like a European politician than a rabid MAGA politico. Who would vote for a Republican running for city council voting promising public works about fixing a city’s horrible sidewalks, streets, and housing stock? Apparently mostly Democrats as the ward’s Republicans didn’t show up to vote and I still got 25% of the vote. I took it as a sign and switched my party affiliation to where I probably should have been in the first place.
"as the system is designed right now, there’s no real downside for the democratic backsliding we are witnessing — at least for the party that is causing it. And that’s why the polls suggest that Trump may take the White House again this December."
What you miss is that the balance of power is still with the Republicans since they control the House and the SCOTUS. There is very little that the Democrats could do that couldn't be negated by the Republicans, and they are using that to show that the nation should put the GOP "back in power" to complete their destruction of democratic government. Note that when a few Republicans extracted the most destructive immigration policy and border enforcement bill from the Democrats to fund Ukraine and fight off Russia, Trump told 'em to dump the bill so the GOP and he could run on "border security" for the election.
There is no immediate upside for our country, and I worry dearly about my children and especially my grandchildren and their kids. This cannot be turned around before a cataclysmic event like WWII.
The border bill that would have legalized illegal immigration went down in flames when Republicans actually read it and realized McConnell was trying to sell them a Democrat-flavored lemon.
The Biden admin caused the crisis at the border by willfully and purposefully dismantling the Remain in Mexico policy and other agreements with central American nations and Venezuela to process asylum applications there.
Please stop claiming the Biden admin or congressional Democrats are serious about border security when they've done everything possible to increase illegal immigration short of disbanding the border patrol.
The question now is, what do we DO about it?
Wake up and stop allowing people who hate our Representative Republic. Vote for Donald J. Trump. He's the only one strong enough to stand up to the deep corruption that runs through both parties. #Trump2024
Turn left? https://x.com/eklund_matthew/status/1692229030068511004?s=46
Barb McQuade recommended this article, and I agree that Asha hits the mark overall. LET THEM EAT TWEETS rocks as an eye-opener that goes beyond T. Franks earlier focusing argument. I resist, however, the use of “tribal” as a descriptor of affinity that ties MAGA supporters together. In the U.S. it’s “party ID” that exerts a powerful kind of identification. Most of us acquire it early. The Rs had been “cracking up” (see Samuel Popkin’s book) before Trump cherry-picked tariffs (protectionism), nativism, and anti-government postures. He especially aimed to attack social policies. Trump constructed his platform and then used demagoguery to recruit his base.
But Suzanne, don’t you feel that the right have been planning their takeover long before he came down the staircase. He is just a craven puppet with no moral sense whatsoever. They latched on to him because he had name recognition and a pop culture following. Leonard Leo et al. are the continuing danger.
I’m not sure Katharine, on how organized the far right white nationalists were before Trump declared. But the big money funders and their media machine provided a vehicle. I’m inclined to believe Michael Cohen’s insistence that Trump ran to get exposure, “as a publicity stunt.” He expected HRC to win. He was ready to lead the opposition to her election. We’d have seen his defiance we now know well much earlier. Trump tweaked the Tea Party coalition. Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway organized them but not until the fall of 2016.
Looking forward to Tuesday! The book is fabulous (and thank you, Asha, for reading this post out loud).
https://www.vox.com/2016/7/18/12210500/diagnosed-dysfunction-republican-party
Thanks for the graphics. And a special thanks for pointing to Reagan’s campaign and election as the turning point. Many if not most Americans are frustrated by how inflation is eating up every paycheck, little knowing it was Reagan who started the steady transfer of wealth away from their income streams and into the pockets of the few. Had that not occurred and been increased by subsequent R administrations and Congresses, current inflation would be a footnote on page 20 instead daily headlines.
Asha is being simplistic and tribal. She argues that the Democrats were less tribal-less vicious-less misidentifying in their identity politicking- labeling- name calling... when Democrats were usually just less blunt, less blatant and less vulgar than Republicans. Actually, Democrats were more condescending more sophisticated in their disingenuity. Democrats' mistruths were so clever that they fooled themselves. They were certain they could win with sophisticated disingenuity. Democrats misidentified (publicly) the cause of inequality with Bill Clinton and Obama continuing the neoliberal policies that ensured gross inequality. Obama talked of HOPE, got folks hopes up high and let them down by supporting the Bush tax cuts by governing very much like both Bush presidents. That’s why we got Trump the talented marketeer with the skills to perfectly tap into the resentments of that “basket of deplorables”.
The Democratic tribe chose a leader in 2016 that called Republicans a “basketful of terribles” tapping into Democratic tribal resentments rather than going with Bernie who was resonating with both the Democratic Tribe and the Republican. Bernie was beating Hillary in the polls against Trump. Both Democrats and Republicans knew and know now that the system is rigged. Both tribes AGREED that the system was rigged but the corporate Democrats rejected the man who offered the very economic policies that would begin to address the economic rigging that caused such grotesque inequality. Democrats went with a leader who called Republicans a “basket of deplorables”, a leader who deepened the divide. We had a sane man saying that the system was rigged for inequality in Bernie, and he offered realistic policies to unrig it. And we had Trump, a fascistic man saying "rigged" only to tap into tribal resentments. Biden is not particularly inspiring to either tribe. That “basket of deplorables” may have us with Trump again. Democrats waited too long to run with economic policies that would ensure greater equality. The table is set for authoritarianism. America will get worse before it gets better, before it moves beyond extreme inequality, extreme tribalism and finds some solidarity in going after neoliberal policies that found monopolies-oligopolies cornering all the major sectors of the market, a concentration of wealth, a corporatism that will find corporations mostly untouched by Biden and taxed even less under Trump. Either way with Trump or Biden the 1%, the oligarchy is going to do just fine, thanks.
I think your comment is way over the heads of most of the author's readers.
Biden is an authoritarian corporatist...just like Hillary was. Somehow he was positioned as America's grandpa despite there being loads of video and text evidence that should have led any reasonable person to conclude that he's a moron for sale to the highest bidder and has been since, at a minimum, the early 90s.
Trump is terrible. We all know that. But he's a reaction to an underlying rot in our governmental system. Once he's out of the picture, that rot will still be there.
As you say, we're heading towards more authoritarianism because that's what will be required for the oligarchs to maintain their current system where they turn us all upside down and shake us till our pockets are empty while they hoover up every last bit of wealth.
Exactly, it's scarey to think that Asha might be thought of as a well educated American...the state of education in America is the problem. How American attend to the world is frightening.
Authoritarianism!!
Puddin' is trying to jail his political opponent. He's having his fbi follow and harrass parents who speak at school board meetings! It's endless. The amount of misery and absolute harm this administration has wrought. Please climb down from your ivory tower. We're circling the drain as a country and we want the honesty, freedom, and prosperity that we had during Trumps last 4 years. We need a leader who loves the Constitution and We the People.
I was struck by your comment that there are "kooks and extremists and crazies 'on both sides'.” I pay attention to politics and am generally put off by most politicians, but I honestly can't identify the Democrat equivalent of "empty G", Boebert, Gaetz, et al. Would you mind sharing who you are talking about here? No offense, but frankly this feels like a bit of gratuitous both-sidesism.
I didn’t say there was a “Democrat equivalent.” I said there are crazies/extremists on either side of the L-R political spectrum. Jill Stein, RFK, etc. They remain on the fringes because the *center of gravity* of the Democratic Party remains moderate and closer to the center and these people cannot get traction in it. I.e., these folks are unable to hijack a major political party. That is the difference.
Thank you for your reply. Of course if you are generalizing about the whole L-R spectrum then, yes, I agree with you. I guess I was confused because for the most part you seemed to be talking about (and my impression of the charts was that they only related to) the two political parties.
If you aren't aware of Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and other lunatic members of the progressive caucus, I don't believe you're actually serious about looking at the problem children among the federally elected Democrats.
I am aware of them and don't by any means regard them as lunatics or problem children. I think those characterizations are ridiculous.
If you don’t think that group of people are radicals pushing insane policies, then you are probably not anywhere near as close to the semi-rational middle as you may believe.
The defining characteristic of the members of the squad are that they’re products of their congressional districts, and most of them are unelectable outside their districts.