It goes further: the language often doesn’t just describe policies as harmful, but conveys them as evil or immoral, either directly or by implication.
This makes compromise almost impossible. In normal negotiation, sides might trade policy priorities—accepting cuts in one area to strengthen another. But when every issue is framed this way it’s no longer a deal making compromise. It’s compromising, moral values.
This is then especially a problem in primary races where a challenger can attack any and all bipartisanship as absolute failure.
“Language: a Key Mechanism of Control” https://users.wfu.edu/zulick/454/gopac.html
He means that if he can make someone feel something is true, then it is as true as the truth.
He said this out loud on CNN years ago
“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.”
― Barry Goldwater
That's not political Christians.
That's a different creature altogether.
i think the core of it is tribalism mixed to unrelenting fear-mongering.
tribalism is probably unavoidable. meanwhile the world is becoming more and more complex and unknowable and "anxiogène" (anxiety inducing? i do not have a good word for this).
education is meant to fight this... and it has been under attack for a while now.
the failure to educate renders the world even more unknowable for vast and wide swathes of the population; and i am not talking about a rich/poor divide here, the "tech bro" stereotype fits right there. a "complete education" is not seen as valuable anymore.
many people will throw away a chance at a better world in exchange of a bad world that they "get", this is a natural tendency. especially when the going is bad for the common folk.
my unsubstantiated opinion is that those reasons are why you see more and more simplified speech, simplified world views, anti-intellectualism and other ills prevail.
politics being dominated by corrupt thieves, sycophants, and immoral lobbyists certainly did not help... not mentioning the state of media (social and traditional).
tldr: - people are afraid so stick to their tribes - people do not/cannot trust the institutions anymore - education and thinking itself is under attack - people are hurting so they cling to what they can
And then the supply runs out, Kona prices shoot up further, and boom, America is great again or something
A real student of American culture would know that it's only truly offensive if it's a latte. (I can't explain why)
The Republicans have most of the power right now. Its natural for the party in that situation to politicize everything as part of a fight to hang on to, and grow, their power and control.
The Democratic party had been this way for most of my adult life.
Or you came into adulthood during or near the Biden administration - which would still mean you are aware of 2016)
That still leaves Republicans controlling the Presidency 1/4 of that time. Further, you, like many Americans, mistake control of the Executive Branch as controlling the government, but "control" involved the legislature, and Republicans, or Republicans and West Virginia Democrats, have controlled both houses in much more of my recent memory.
Gay marriage, reversing don't ask don't tell, and the ACA are all policies that the Republicans were very opposed to. The overturning of Roe v Wade is the only major Republican win I can think of (maybe I missed some), though that is a decades old fight and one that in my opinion Democrats setup for failure by never pushing it passed a single supreme court ruling.
Political power follows culture, and for the recent past the majority public opinion has generally supported Democratic policies over Republican ones. That's changed.
The last time the parties flipped was in the 70s and 80s. I was only alive for the tail end of that and paying no attention to politics, but my understanding is that the pattern was generally the same. At that time they flipped names as well, many democrats of the era moved over to the republican party. Maybe we'll see that again in the near future, but for now it seems like both parties are happier to keep the same brands while switch many view points (big business vs workers, state rights issues, limits on the executive branch, etc)
I think many, if not most, Americans agree that the tariffs are excessive and are going to cause issues.
Who could've known that the tariff man would impose tariffs? Maybe his mini trade war with China in 2018--for which he had to bail out farmers--should've served as an indicator of what was to come.
So far, I haven't found many bonafide Republicans willing to say, "This is bad enough to make me regret voting for Trump", or even to have not voted for, or voted against Trump.
If you are one of these conservative/Republicans, do you fit into any of the above categories?