By Thomas Neuburger
“I don’t care who people vote for as long as I get to choose the candidates.” —Boss Tweed, who didn’t mind saying who’s in charge
The Apparent State of the Nation
Consider this relatively innocuous graph:
Bespeaks a “divided nation,” doesn’t it? A nation roughly evenly split between two warring groups — the Democratic Party’s owners, paid ecosystem, and targeted voters; and the Republican Party’s owners, professional ecosystem, and targeted voters.
In both cases, the first two party groups — the owners; the ecosystem and media — have almost all the control. They choose the candidates, mostly, or maneuver who you get to chose among, which amounts to the same thing. They also choose where the money goes. All those donations gleaned from mailers and articles like this (“The Republican Party is now the most dangerous threat in the world”) and this (“Chuck Schumer’s Embrace of Mobs Is a Menace to Constitutional Democracy”); all those billionaire dollars; every dime that flows into party and lobbyist system coffers; it all goes to party operatives to control.
If you’re one of the targets of this messaging, you may think one of the statements above is true, and be glad to destroy the evil “your side” fights against. Both sides, it’s easy to see, think the other side is evil, and one of those sides may be right.
Thus we appear to see a nation divided, liberal “left” against conservative “right”, and roughly evenly so. Again, consider the chart above, which depicts these ebbs and flows perfectly.
“How do we escape this evenness?” both sides wonder.
The Actual State of the Nation
Now consider the following graph:
Or worse, the graph at the top of this page. If you were asked to deduce from these charts what’s the divide in the nation, what would you say? What does the data say?
Does it say that since the seminal, crisis election of 2008 (purple line above), when both sides claimed to stand on the side of the people, and one side was believed…
…does it say that the betrayals of 2009 and later have divided the nation, not between “left” and “right,” but between those who still feel a part of the party system, and those left out?
This is not about right and wrong, or right and left. It’s about the state of the country and its real divide.
What Divides the Nation Is Trust
The nation is divided between those who think, with all the fervor they have, that one of the parties is telling the truth — and those who don’t trust either to have their back. That split in 2021 was 56-42 in favor of the party trust. Today, according to Axios, it's 50-50.
While it’s true that among the “neithers” (independents) are those who lean, some to Republican prosecutorial virtue, some to Democrats’ sometime kindliness.
But 50%, as a voting bloc, would control the country, if they would unite against both legacy parties and back a third. Not going to happen, of course. See Boss Tweed’s quote above for one reason why. But dreams are still nice.
The Love They Take
Which leads to the point du jour. Does the Democratic Party really think it will increase the love it takes from the indie and non-voter class, by acting like this?
It would be one thing if Taibbi’s testimony before Congress were false, especially knowingly false. (Though “knowingly false” didn’t trouble James Clapper too much.) But the fact is, whatever you’ve come to think of Matt Taibbi, even that he “serves the Right,” the facts are on his side (see also here). Not a good look for the reality-based community, denying the facts.
And this circle, by the perceived-to-be party-aligned Times, is impossible to square:
How do you defend these acts to those who don’t already believe that any act that stems the fascist tide is justified, even if the effort itself is questionable at best, and unconstitutional at worst?
I write this not to trash Democrats, some of whom display honor honestly gained, but to weep for them, their wicked misleadership, and often, despair for us.
After all, Republicans, as they are now misled, seem hell-bent on a Christo-fascist coup. But to trust Democrats to save us? An errand for fools, if past is prologue at all.
Feste: Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun — it shines everywhere.