- Joined
- Jun 11, 2009
- Messages
- 19,657
- Reaction score
- 8,454
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Libertarian
A clear pattern has emerged.
1: Trump comes out with a controversial action or policy.
2: Initial polls show opposition from Democrats and Independents, but show the GOP more divided.
3: The left wing media responds with wall to wall vehement coverage and the Democrats line up to criticize the administration.
4: The attitudes in the GOP suddenly shift to coalesce in support of Trump's position.
5: The critical voices of Trump's position within the GOP are ostracized by their peers.
6: The positions of the constituents of the GOP change in dramatic fashion away from the traditional GOP positions and align with Trump's positions.
We have seen this play out with family values, fiscal policy on deficits and debt, free trade, and now immigration.
The immigration transformation is the most amazing because it is happening in real time and appears accelerated. A slim majority of Republicans support family separations at the border but the GOP constituents who oppose it are already shifting and changing their position rapidly in reaction to the media and liberal response. In effect, Trump wins right wing converts to unpopular policies simply by generating a massive left wing response. The notion appears to be if the left wing hates it, then Trump must be right. Trump is also vastly reshaping the GOP through this issue by issue convertion of constituent views and attitudes. He and his supporters can cast older positions as the fodder of the political caste swamp that needs to be rooted out from the party.
This rallying effect is unreal and lends itself to a tribalism not seen since the desegregation era. I think it is predictable that a similar effect will occur with the next leader of the left and the polarization will continue until both parties are fundamentally altered.
1: Trump comes out with a controversial action or policy.
2: Initial polls show opposition from Democrats and Independents, but show the GOP more divided.
3: The left wing media responds with wall to wall vehement coverage and the Democrats line up to criticize the administration.
4: The attitudes in the GOP suddenly shift to coalesce in support of Trump's position.
5: The critical voices of Trump's position within the GOP are ostracized by their peers.
6: The positions of the constituents of the GOP change in dramatic fashion away from the traditional GOP positions and align with Trump's positions.
We have seen this play out with family values, fiscal policy on deficits and debt, free trade, and now immigration.
The immigration transformation is the most amazing because it is happening in real time and appears accelerated. A slim majority of Republicans support family separations at the border but the GOP constituents who oppose it are already shifting and changing their position rapidly in reaction to the media and liberal response. In effect, Trump wins right wing converts to unpopular policies simply by generating a massive left wing response. The notion appears to be if the left wing hates it, then Trump must be right. Trump is also vastly reshaping the GOP through this issue by issue convertion of constituent views and attitudes. He and his supporters can cast older positions as the fodder of the political caste swamp that needs to be rooted out from the party.
This rallying effect is unreal and lends itself to a tribalism not seen since the desegregation era. I think it is predictable that a similar effect will occur with the next leader of the left and the polarization will continue until both parties are fundamentally altered.