The State of Our Politics--National and State
I listened to NPR's report by Mara Liaison on the state of politics in the United States and thought that it's also true of Texas politics. The segment is here . There are three observations about the state of contemporary politics. First, politics is tribal. We are divided into teams. Our team is always right; the other team is always wrong. In The Tribe: On Homecoming And Belongin g, Sebastian Junger describes the attributes of tribal societies: (1) people are a part of a community in which they feel invested, and (2) people are defended from their enemies. The political parties, and the people who identify with them, are tribal. A number of scholars have noted the prevalence of "negative" partisanship: it's more about opposition to the other party than support for one's own party. Also, whatever the political party leader supports is also what I support. The second observation is the inability to separate fact from fiction. This relates to tribal nature...