BREAKING: Univision Releases DEVASTATING Melania Trump ‘Green Card’ Bombshell (DETAILS)

[tblue37]

88. I know. Possibly Scotch-Irish, since that ethnic background is heavily represented in

The South and Southeastern US. (My mom was Scotch-Irish on her mother's side; her father was a Russian Jewish immigrant.)

But my dad's family, who are otherwise wonderful people, are Republicans, as was he. It is part of their "tribal identity," and they probably won't change because it is tribal identity rather than actual political thought that determines their votes--which is the case for most people. It is like identifying with their school sports team or professional sports team, regardless of whether the team wins, regardless of whether the players are nice or nasty members of the community.

And since both in politics and in sports, your team competes agonically with another team, for most people part of that identification involves being riled up against the opponent, who is seen as the "enemy."

I had a student once whose friends and many family members ostracized her for choosing to attend KU because she was from Missouri: KU's longtime sports rival was Missouri. They called the rivalry the "Border Wars," referencing the Civil War conflict the Kansas Jayhawks borrowed their name from.

As they saw it, she was a traitor for going over to the enemy. She had chosen KU because we had the best regional program for her major, but rational considerations did not enter into their assessment, nor did they think she should consider such things. All that mattered to them was being loyal to the "team."

Vile insults and even violence and vandalism are common between such sports tribes, just as they are between political tribes. Before the two schools ended up in different conferences, I used to hear people at KU--even professors and deans--snarl, "I HATE those people!"

The easiest thing for a demagogue to do is to get people to identify excessively and irrationally with a tribe and then rile them up to hate, hate, hate the members of another tribe perceived as opponents.

We see that here during every primary. The vicious attacks on fellow Democrats-liberals-progressives, members of our own tribe, occur because people identify with more narrowly defined tribes within the larger one--IOW, factions. It is especially enlightening to observe the behavior of members who have switched their tribal identification since 2008. Despite vilifying Hillary in the most extreme language 8 years ago, once they changed their tribal identification, they glorified her in similarly extreme terms and similarly vilified any who opposed her. Many of Hillary's tribe didn't just support her, but hated not only Bernie's supporters, but Bernie himself--and some STILL can't let go of their agonic response!

In the same way, many of Bernie's tribe responded to him as an idol rather than as a politician--a good man, surely, just as HRC is a good woman, but NOT a god or a savior any more than Hillary is. As we know all too well, some of Bernie's supporters also cannot let go of their hatred for the other tribe and their rival god, so we still see attacks from a few members of both tribes, while quite a few of the people whose tribe was defeated have left DU altogether.

But although I strongly supported Bernie, I never saw Hillary or her supporters as an enemy tribe, so I have no trouble supporting Hillary in the GE as strongly as I supported Bernie in the primary. I must admit, though, that I was disappointed when DU members whom I have long respected and read with pleasure stooped to hurling the sort of invective at other DU members that one hears from rabid sports fans insulting fans of the opposing team. I was also disgusted to see DU members vilifying Hillary or Bernie in terms appallingly similar to the worst language used by Trump and the GOP generally against Hillary and Obama.

None of our politicians are perfect, but Obama, Hillary, and Bernie at least TRY to move the ball down the field for us, though progress is necessarily incremental when the other team is so powerful and when half or more of our team only show up for a handful of the big plays (and only every four years!).

I know how powerful our instinctive responses are, how difficult to suppress through reason and self control. I just felt sad to see so many here wallow in tribal rage against others in the same tribe, just as my Missouri student's friends and family turned against her for daring to choose KU, the school they consider the enemy. I would LIKE to think the tribe I belong to is capable of being at least somewhat more rational and temperate than the Republican base.