not sure what to say about more and more Trump criminal indictments
The realm of criminal indictments is different from the realm of politics. It's a battle between the prosecutors and the defense in front of a jury, with the possibility that appellate judges will toss out the verdict if the trial is defective.
In this battle, what you or I think about it should be irrelevant to the guilt or innocence of the person charged. We don't have mob justice in the US. We should also presume the innocence of the accused until the jury reports their verdict -- I don't hear many Democrats saying they presume Trump's innocence.
It is amazing to me, personally, that Trump's supporters don't give a damn whether he's indicted or not. They seem to think the indictments are purely a sham, that Democratic prosecutors are only going after Trump because he's a Republican. You don't hear Republicans saying that they presume Trump's innocence, instead you hear them saying Biden has "weaponized" the Department of Justice and the FBI to go after Trump.
It is also amazing to me that Biden and Trump are virtually tied in the polls, which combined with the tilt of the Electoral College means Trump would win if we held elections today. And that would be the lawful democratic outcome, not the fraud Trump is charged with perpetrating after the 2020 election.
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The underlying problem here is partisanship. It is difficult to quantify "partisanship", but various scientists try, and one way is by looking at the attitudinal gap between the average member of each major party, a gap which has doubled over the past 30 years. Party membership is now by far the strongest predictor of a person's beliefs, stronger than race, education, gender, religion, or income.
As partisanship becomes stronger, party members begin to view party membership as the most important thing about a person. In the case of Trump, more important than whether he constantly lies and breaks laws. In the case of Biden, more important than how he manages the economy, immigration, or crime, and more important than the infirmities of his advanced age.
To a partisan Democrat, when they find out I'm a registered Green, their only response is that "voting Green will help Republicans win". They can't think beyond that partisan slogan, because everything is Democrat vs. Republican, and your only job is to vote Democrat in every election because Republicans are worse. But wait, I live in Maryland, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 2-1, there's no way to have a "spoiler" effect in this state. We could push Republicans to third place in Maryland if we had a strong Green Party here.
Partisanship blinds us to the possibility of compromise and finding shared ground, because we'd rather fight over our disagreements, we'd rather treat each other as enemies, we'd rather engage in winner-take-all battles. Our trend of increasing partisanship dates back to 1972 and is why Congress hasn't passed an Amendment to the Constitution since 1971. We can't focus on where we agree with each other, we can only focus on where we disagree.
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As the parties have moved further apart attitudinally, they've also policed their own membership more thoroughly. There used to be a lot more pro-life Democratic officials, they've become nearly extinct. Republicans try to kick out "RINOs", an abbreviation for "Republicans in Name Only". Cancel culture seems to have arisen as a result of social media, but it is also a result of increasing partisanship requiring increasing purity of belief among group members.
Nobody believes in a "Big Tent" anymore, instead you have to agree with everything your group believes or they'll kick you out. On the Left, look what happens to people who merely question some of the standard beliefs about sexuality and gender. You get shunned and deplatformed, your book deals are canceled, and so forth.
I literally saw somebody say this morning that we should accept the needs of transgender people "without question". Without question. Minority groups get to have whatever they want, and if you have a question about this, you're the enemy. I've also seen people say that you cannot be both pro-life and a feminist. Cannot.
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I'm not sure how to reverse this trend, other than to point it out and to keep questioning and to keep voting independently.
But if you're a Democrat wondering why Republicans put up with Trump, I want to know why you put up with Biden, who is equally unpopular. It is because your partisanship blinds you to his infirmity and his incompetency. You're essentially no different from a Trump supporter, except for the direction in which you point your finger.
In this battle, what you or I think about it should be irrelevant to the guilt or innocence of the person charged. We don't have mob justice in the US. We should also presume the innocence of the accused until the jury reports their verdict -- I don't hear many Democrats saying they presume Trump's innocence.
It is amazing to me, personally, that Trump's supporters don't give a damn whether he's indicted or not. They seem to think the indictments are purely a sham, that Democratic prosecutors are only going after Trump because he's a Republican. You don't hear Republicans saying that they presume Trump's innocence, instead you hear them saying Biden has "weaponized" the Department of Justice and the FBI to go after Trump.
It is also amazing to me that Biden and Trump are virtually tied in the polls, which combined with the tilt of the Electoral College means Trump would win if we held elections today. And that would be the lawful democratic outcome, not the fraud Trump is charged with perpetrating after the 2020 election.
-----
The underlying problem here is partisanship. It is difficult to quantify "partisanship", but various scientists try, and one way is by looking at the attitudinal gap between the average member of each major party, a gap which has doubled over the past 30 years. Party membership is now by far the strongest predictor of a person's beliefs, stronger than race, education, gender, religion, or income.
As partisanship becomes stronger, party members begin to view party membership as the most important thing about a person. In the case of Trump, more important than whether he constantly lies and breaks laws. In the case of Biden, more important than how he manages the economy, immigration, or crime, and more important than the infirmities of his advanced age.
To a partisan Democrat, when they find out I'm a registered Green, their only response is that "voting Green will help Republicans win". They can't think beyond that partisan slogan, because everything is Democrat vs. Republican, and your only job is to vote Democrat in every election because Republicans are worse. But wait, I live in Maryland, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 2-1, there's no way to have a "spoiler" effect in this state. We could push Republicans to third place in Maryland if we had a strong Green Party here.
Partisanship blinds us to the possibility of compromise and finding shared ground, because we'd rather fight over our disagreements, we'd rather treat each other as enemies, we'd rather engage in winner-take-all battles. Our trend of increasing partisanship dates back to 1972 and is why Congress hasn't passed an Amendment to the Constitution since 1971. We can't focus on where we agree with each other, we can only focus on where we disagree.
-----
As the parties have moved further apart attitudinally, they've also policed their own membership more thoroughly. There used to be a lot more pro-life Democratic officials, they've become nearly extinct. Republicans try to kick out "RINOs", an abbreviation for "Republicans in Name Only". Cancel culture seems to have arisen as a result of social media, but it is also a result of increasing partisanship requiring increasing purity of belief among group members.
Nobody believes in a "Big Tent" anymore, instead you have to agree with everything your group believes or they'll kick you out. On the Left, look what happens to people who merely question some of the standard beliefs about sexuality and gender. You get shunned and deplatformed, your book deals are canceled, and so forth.
I literally saw somebody say this morning that we should accept the needs of transgender people "without question". Without question. Minority groups get to have whatever they want, and if you have a question about this, you're the enemy. I've also seen people say that you cannot be both pro-life and a feminist. Cannot.
-----
I'm not sure how to reverse this trend, other than to point it out and to keep questioning and to keep voting independently.
But if you're a Democrat wondering why Republicans put up with Trump, I want to know why you put up with Biden, who is equally unpopular. It is because your partisanship blinds you to his infirmity and his incompetency. You're essentially no different from a Trump supporter, except for the direction in which you point your finger.