The Politics of Us and Them

 I was interested in conspiracy theories before, so I made a note of this book earlier.

The book moves onto politics near the end. Though there is some discussion of QAnon type of trends there, the book really does outline how voters in general work. The strong belief in matters that are largely fake or falsified by the right wing press (but not interesting, which the conspiracies are) the behavior is exactly the same as in believing conspiracies carried out by your opponents. The right wing voters believe in a world of their dreams that just is not what we have. By denying climate change, for example, we can just carry on as before. That is the conservatism, no change wanted.

The white working classes that voted for Trump really don't care about policy. It's an us an them game for them. Anyone who does not fall into the white American Christian camp is pretty much "them." Also politicians and lawyers, as well as scientists are them. So the populist simply needs to be in some manner connected to the large group of uneducated voters to capture them. Apparently there was a large shift of white working class Democrats to the Republican party in the Obama years. It was not so much to do with policy but a fear of "them" taking over. They feared for their "way of life."

Theoretically it could happen on the left as well. Many left wingers are not that educated either. But in recent times it has not. Vietnam and hippies are long gone.

Acts of destruction to Democrats all over the country are another phenomenon of this US and THEM thinking. There is no holding back Trump voters. This will not stop till well past 2025. Maybe never.

The dissatisfaction of grid locked Washington is not going to end anytime soon. There was a brief period of GOP senators and congress people being critical of Trump, but now they are back to voting no on every bill that comes up. Important bills, backed by well over half the voters, will not come up for a vote. We will be doing well just to pass the budget yearly.