Politics and the exploitation of tribalism.

Dems say it’s the trump deregulation. GOPers say Biden signed off on the unions being forced to take the agreement. Both are true, both are a partial picture of a longer trend. Both parties knows their base will accept the talking points without looking into it or thinking deeply.

Tribalism is how the GOP campaigned on “look at the money coming to our district from the infrastructure bill” that not a single GOP legislator voted for. It’s how the GOP raised taxes on everyone but lowered them for the rich, but still have working class support. Because these tax increases only start hitting in 2023 (just in time for the 2024 presidential campaign), next year you’ll have republicans blaming Biden for the middle class tax hike.

Democrats like myself are not immune to this tribalism either, but it is different. While Trump could do no wrong with a certain crowd (until he tried to suggest people get vaccinated), I find most of democrats call BS on Biden all the time. But, almost no democrat can answer “name one thing Trump did that was good.” One good thing is he signed the First Step Act in 2018, which enacted some long overdue criminal justice reforms into law - wasn’t controversial, wasn’t shiny, doesn’t get the full job done, but he gets to take credit for it.

Anyhow. The point is, even if it’s a bipartisan problem all the discourse ignores the facts. People trust those “in” their tribe and mistrust the outsiders. Heck, we have a congressperson who remains uncensured for calling to dissolve the union a little over a week ago - that’s unheard of since the 1800s. The tribalism is too strong to even talk about that coherently across party lines.