Democrats are a loose, diverse, fluid and often casually convenient coalition of political “acquaintances” who come and go all the time.
That’s actually kinda enlightened, intellectually. It’s rational. But partisan politics is seldom rational, and this Dem Pragmatic Promiscuity can be a huge competitive liability in our binary, polarized (and broken) two-party system.
Today’s Republicans are a huddle of blood-spitting true believers. That makes them a real drag at cocktail parties, but throat-clamping Dobermans in the ring.
Advantage GOP. Again, as our system is constructed.
I give Republicans strategic credit. They have discovered the way to win with 30 percent national support.
And Democrats have perfected the Dismal Art of Losing, pretty much no matter what.
In sports terms, Dems have “athletes.” But they’re “turnover prone.” Republicans know how to play the game, however repugnant and crooked it is. They work the margins, hit to the echo of the whistle, don’t even acknowledge the existence of “boundaries” and bleed the clock.
And right now, Dems are vectored toward getting their clocks cleaned in 2022 and perhaps beyond.
Ineffective. Impotent. Divided. Directionless. Disorganized. Undisciplined.
We wonder how and why we have become so sharply divided? Because our two-party system will have it no other way, particularly given our current social media minefield.
People don’t love their party. People of either party. They simply hate the other one. And when push comes to shove, reflexive hatred will always determine who they choose to shove off the cliff.
The incongruous thing is that a huge number of Americans (38%) self-identify as political “independents.” But they’re really not. Almost all of them “lean” toward one party or the other, and will almost always vote their “leanings,” particularly when stressed or cornered.
And they are cornered. Because they have only two choices. And they hear only two voices, increasingly separated by a kind of political Doppler Effect.
That fading whine you hear is the death throes of The Voice of Reason.