Something about US elections I’ve observed casually is it’s rarely actually candidate vs candidate.
-
Something about US elections I’ve observed casually is it’s rarely actually candidate vs candidate. It’s actually ‘my team vs my couch’.
Most folks vote for their team rather than actual ground-level issues. This seems to bear out when you have left-ish ballot initiatives in very red areas. The initiatives actually get good traction… maybe pass… but the people would never vote for the other team, despite those same issues being the other team’s platform.
1/2
-
And I say ‘team’ because that’s ostensibly what it is. Statistically, if you were born into a family of Red Sox fans, you will be a Red Sox fan, even after you become an adult and move to Brooklyn.
Humans are, like, REALLY into tribalism.
-
@octothorpe Yeah. There are lots of issues, and I'm wary of people saying "this is why we lost”, but an issue I personally have run into when visiting relatives is that they have thoroughly demonized dems/liberals/etc, so even when they are willing to rant about their own party, "nothing would be as bad as <insert Democrat candidate>”. Deciding between candidates of your party? "That one once complimented a Democrat.”
-
@andrewabernathy Yeah, it’s not good times. I also place a large chunk of blame on social platforms for accelerating and augmenting this hyperpartisanship.
-
@octothorpe @andrewabernathy I honestly think this can be attributed to just that one guy. Vilified the Obama and pulled in the racists in doing so.
-
@sanguish @andrewabernathy That totally happened, but the pattern predates Obama by a lot. At least Reagan II. It's like Reagan I set up all the pieces for it, and RII was the first iteration.
-
@octothorpe @andrewabernathy Fox News was a big contributor
-
@sanguish @andrewabernathy That's just it. In this metaphor, Fox News is ostensibly Monday Night Football. It's the circus that maintains the pomp and rivalry.
