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| Tribalism in a nutshell |
Adam Serwer in the Atlantic provides a proper coda for the 2018 midterm elections:
...A large number of Republican candidates, led by the president, ran racist or bigoted campaigns against their opponents. But those opponents cannot be said to belong to a “tribe.” No common ethnic or religious ties bind [Heidi] Heitkamp, [Amar] Campa-Najjar, or the constituencies that elected them. It was their Republican opponents who turned to “tribalism,” painting them as scary or dangerous, and working to disenfranchise their supporters.
The urgency of the Republican strategy stems in part from the recognition that the GOP agenda—slashing the social safety net and reducing taxes on the wealthy—is deeply unpopular. Progressive ballot initiatives, including the expansion of Medicaid, anti-gerrymandering measures, and the restoration of voting rights for formerly incarcerated people, succeeded even in red states. If Republicans ran on their policy agenda alone, they would be at a disadvantage. So they have turned to a destructive politics of white identity, one that seeks a path to power by deliberately dividing the country along racial and sectarian lines. They portray the nation as the birthright of white, heterosexual Christians, and label the growing population of those who don’t fit that mold or reject that moral framework as dangerous usurpers.
The Democratic Party, reliant as it is on a diverse coalition of voters, cannot afford to engage in this kind of politics. [...] Democratic candidates did not attack their white male opponents as dangerous because four white men carried out deadly acts of right-wing terrorism in the two weeks prior to the election. Democratic candidates for statewide office did not appeal to voters in blue states by trashing other parts of the country considered to be conservative. [...]
In the Trump era, America finds itself with two political parties: one that’s growing more reliant on the nation’s diversity, and one that sees its path to power in stoking fear and rage toward those who are different. America doesn’t have a “tribalism” problem. It has a racism problem. And the parties are not equally responsible.
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| One man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter |
So when policy goals are incoherent/unpopular and politicians would rather avoid talking about them, it will lead to fear-mongering and identity politics. Toxic tribalism is the unfortunate end. It's always been this way. Even the Simpsons get it.
— lukewarm toddy (@landolikesmusic) November 11, 2018
The same framework is in play in today's Middle East, Latin America, and eastern Europe, perhaps other places too.
So let's take a lesson from ancient Jewish history:
Arabic proverb: "They asked the Pharoah, what made you a tyrant? He said: No one stopped me."— İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي (@iyad_elbaghdadi) February 25, 2012
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