Leftism is a cult.
Ultimately, political affiliations come down to a sort of optimization function…a nonlinear program of “Maximize aggregate personal and economic utility, subject to how much nonsense can I tolerate in my selected political camp.”
100% conformity and compliance rarely happens outside of a cult. Even in the best of families does everyone agree all the time.
The Starting Point for most individuals’ political optimization process are Third Rail topics. For most folks, the Big Two are guns and abortion. This is why the Dems and Repubs are so visibly opposite on these issues.
Nowadays, the second-tier of Third Rails is illegal immigration and parental rights. On FR these are slam dunks; but some pro-union Dems dislike wage depression and lots of Repubs like their “free” public skoolz. Nonetheless these cause probably 80/20 splits OR they are low-passion issues.
From there, it gets a little more challenging but manageable:
- Taxes? Clearly Dems are all Tax the Rich, though increasingly some conservatives are singing that statist tune though they transcribe it to a populist key signature.
-Back the Blue? Clearly the left is pro-defund and the right backs the police, though the poles are flipped on the FBI.
-Govt regulation of personal non-criminal behavior? Conservatives favor free markets (unless it’s Big Tech when they suddenly favor breakups) while liberals favor regulation of every dimension of the economy (except for Big Tech that plays ball with Bidet); the big exception is drug legalization, where both sides are generally fractured.
Interestingly, sprinkled amongst the remaining (and generally lesser-ranked) issues are topics that can make or break a Defection. The BIGGEST one that I can see, is race. This became an ascendant issue under Obama…prior to 2009, everyone GENERALLY got along. Under Obama, race became a weaponized lens through which MANY non-racial things became THE object. Crime? It’s because or racism. Wealth? Disparity because of race. Success or failure? Race. This weaponization caused Masks to slip a little or a lot. BLM is the most blatantly visible mask-slip/fall on the left, followed by nonsense in public schools and universities pushed by race-baiting losers in tweed blazers. The right also had its own slippage, with people chest-thumping “why can’t I have white pride, the blacks this and the blacks that…” from their moms basement.
Amidst this optimization process, people land left or right.
But migrations happen when, say, the emboldened racists on the left explode after October 7 and go “full bigot.” Some liberals suddenly see the Truth/that the Outgroup was never THAT racist in general, but their Tribe IS.
For this lot, they can live alongside gun-toting, pro-life, anti-immigration Deplorables after all.
The big question for us is, will we welcome them or not?