The American War Has Two Great Battles
America is at war with itself, based on two separate battles: The battle against the billionaires and the battle against tribalism. The former is more important, but it can’t be addressed until the American public figures out how to move past tribalism.
Tribalism divides us, and a divided public cannot unite against the billionaires. It emerged from the deep divide between conservatives and liberals over social programs and individual rights. Liberals want all groups (gender, sexual orientation, race) to have equal standing in our society. Conservatives oppose some of those rights based on their traditions or religious affiliation.
The current battleground is trans rights, where some liberals believe that minors should have a sex change if it is determined they need one. Conservatives argue that a trans candidate needs to be an adult to make that decision. There is no compromise from either side, making this issue unresolvable. Trans rights are different from women’s rights or gay rights because they involve children undergoing a permanent and irreversible change. It’s not clear that they have the mental capacity to make that life-changing decision.
The ideologues carry on tribal warfare in America from both ends of the political spectrum. Most Americans are not as passionate about the debate, although the idea of teachers grooming potential trans kids is scary to parents who have students in the primary grades. Most parents have an opinion on this issue.
While the trans issue may be the most difficult social issue in America today, there are plenty of others, such as abortion, immigration, and foreign policy, that divide the public. At the political philosophy level, the battle is between neoliberal globalists (the left) and nation-state advocates (the right).
Tribalism has been with us for about twenty years and shows no sign of abating. Trump is a lightning rod for controversy, and Trump Derangement Syndrome permeates the thinking of the left. Its response and the reaction from the right deepens the chasm between the two sides. It’s hard to know the impact of Trump on tribalism. If he were gone, would tribalism end? Unlikely, because we were tribal before Trump’s first administration.
Americans must understand the damage tribalism does. It raises disagreements about issues to an emotional level, preventing discussion that could lead to consensus. It prevents Congress from putting into law programs that will benefit the American people, and it breaks up families. Those who engage in tribal behavior put ideology above their own good, which has to be labeled irrational behavior.
Why would anyone want America to fail because they were debating ideology? Extreme positions on both sides are often exaggerated on social media, which seeks to generate clicks through controversy. In the end, the truth is lost, and irrationality wins.
How wonderful life would be if both sides could agree to put social issues aside and focus on the economy, jobs, and capitalism, where there is a chance for consensus.
The majority of Americans are not tribal, but they are suffering from its impact on their lives. A majority of Americans say they respect the beliefs of the other side and can see the importance of consensus. Since those with extreme positions will not change their positions, it is up to the practical ones to be the adults in the room.
In Europe, there is no tribalism like in the United States. Tribes in Europe are usually ethnic groups, too small to exert much power over the government. The major societal divide is based on economic class, separating the wealthy from the common man.
The rich have invested in the globalist ideology because it’s the easiest way for them to enrich themselves, leaving the poor isolated and lacking access to education, professional careers, and government power. Most European countries have multiple political parties that must affiliate with each other to form coalitions. There is no two-party face-off like the United States.
While tribalism carries on, the billionaires are laughing. Their goal of enriching themselves is made easier because the public lacks the unity required to block their efforts. They use their partner corporations to spread propaganda and manipulate the government by taking positions in the executive branch, funding lobbyists, and paying for their lackeys’ campaigns.
Elite control of the federal government will continue to yield benefits for them and little for the American people, as long as the status quo is allowed to continue. No one in Congress believes they are vulnerable to the people’s wrath. All believe that the elite model of government and its benefits should continue forever.
But the people have control, through the ballot box.
If the American public could understand its power and exercise it, elected officials would become more accountable. They would see that ignoring the people leads to an election day defeat.
It seems so simple. Fix tribalism and then take on the billionaires. It’s easy to say, but it will take a united public to fix.
Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author's own.
 | A guest post by
|
Rhetorically bemoaning 'tribalism' is frankly unhelpful and misguided. 'Tribes' are just another form of coalition and coalitions are the natural and inevitable self-organization of people with shared interests and positions in democratic politics. Our particular system here in the US under the Constitution was specifically designed not merely with the expectation that factionalism would arise but to deliberately rely on factionalism as a feature to help ensure that power remains somewhat dispersed and there is no stable equilibrium where any one faction can perpetually dominate all the levels and branches all the time. The current state of affairs IS rational. As dysfunctional as it may have become relative to a theoretical ideal, it's also still the political system that has been rather consistently outcompeting every other in the world. Take a look at how the average wealth of citizens in Europe has diverged over time from that of US citizens and then try to tell us that their votes are working out more effectively for them than ours have been. The average citizen of our poorest state is materially better off than the majority of EU citizens.
Europe has its own unique problems…but I would guess who is better off or not depends on the metric. There are divisions within divisions now and almost every country outside of the US is much more influenced by Marx than the US tradition which we think of as classical liberalism which is pre-Marx…everything post 1848 Communist Manifesto and the European Revolutions of 1848 have a different conception of liberty and the role of the state than before…Tribalism of some sort will always be with us and sometimes for good reasons that are rational and is blended now with discussions of nationalism which is the bulwark against globalization, of which there are over 13 different types from civic nationalism (which is what I would traditionally think of as the US ideal) to religious nationalism, left wing nationalism as seen in Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, much of the Middle East which combines religious nationalism with Marx- two seemingly contradictory viewpoints, to what we think of as national socialism with facism). Lots of ‘isms. George Washington warned against tribalism in terms of factionalism…not that it helped…but the new tribalism stems from resurgent new left politics (its reactionary politics on the conservative side requires a slightly different analysis although left/right liberal/conservative do not currently have much meaning right now as the designations don’t really fit neatly). Also much of what we see on that side comes from the post-modern position- there are no universals, only particulars…which means there can’t be shared values or rather only differences and not sameness…the implicit creed of the US was reflected in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. But even that view has changed as liberal democracy does not have a shared understanding with one group wanting to get rid of the electoral college and have something more akin to direct democracy, another perhaps democratic socialism (a democratic socialist state that replaces capitalism where the government owns the means of production), or social democracy (which seems what liberal democracy is code for…capitalism with strong government regulation and social welfare programs) and others a constitutional republic. And yet others…who knows…but without some universal principles and shared values that are normative you get anarchy- which some view as a good thing or as Slavoj Žižek, who is definitely not woke and who famously debated Jordan Peterson said in his book quoting Mao in Heaven in Disorder, “Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent”