I awakened this Christmas thinking that

[hay rick]

18. I grew up in New Jersey and swore allegiance to the "Evil Empire."

The media likes to describe current American politics as tribal, but I think it's more like supporting "my team." A couple random observations:
1. Extreme polarization in our politics has flourished in the same time frame as expanded cable channels and 24/7 sports on tv and radio. In my last decade of working (a decade ago, thank you Baby Jesus!) I noticed that my co-workers knew more and more about sports minutiae (they could lose me talking about salary cap options) and less and less about political developments.
2. If your franchise has a bad owner, a bad boy player, or is saddled with an overpaid star- you just wait it out. For those who dislike Trump- he is a mistake that will be fixed in the future. Or you support him blindly because he is our guy.
3. If you are a Republican because it is your team, it frequently is unrelated to political issues to which you pay little attention. You may chant "no socialism" or offer a stone-faced insistence that we need "law and order" but you probably support raising the minimum wage and may surprise your liberal friends by agreeing that we need a single-payer healthcare system. You join your team because many of your friends and co-workers are already on the team. People like you (same color, neighborhood) are on the team. Your teammates regurgitate talking points they heard on Fox News and they become the things that "everybody knows..."

That said, Merry Christmas all!